Fate Point Mechanics (Yes, it was this thing that FATE/SotC first turned into real mechanics, and the one trick that everybody borrowed from) had always been used for this purpose.
Basically it gave another layer of options, beyond the normal +/- "obvious" mechanics that you can calculate.
>As simple mechanics show simple odds, when one can obviously see the odds, most people would prefer the safer sides of things.
>Even Players don't usually have death wishes after all. Even if PCs aren't actually "alive" per se.
>But "being heroic" usually means "not being safe". Not going against the odds means that PCs are probably not being as adventurous as they should be.
>So, FPs. You get FPs by "overreaching" from the safe zone (re: RP), and at the same time it "protects" PCs from the consequences of overreaching.
>It not just allows you to do more, but
encourages you to do more.
So, yeah, that's why everybody borrowed that trick nowadays.
As for death, well, that's always the tricky part.
TRPG was, traditionally, a chance for players to
safely brave deaths when the goal is to be heroic.
But then the idea of lost, re. "players don't want to lose", as well as "players don't want to lost their characters", since it gives the illusion of permanent lost. This of which, in terms of TRPG gaming, is unlike REAL LIFE, character death is actually false as you have multiple ways, both in-game and meta, to nullify them regardless of system or genre.
But that fear persists, despite this being a game, and sometimes despite of safety nets like the aforementioned FP mechanics.
Even if THE GAME ITSELF did not have death, sometimes the player just cannot continue.
For example:
TWO of my old game was based on PCs going through multiple "deaths" that, systems-wise they will come back from, and continue as same character. (I just put one of them up here
. The other was system-less.)
About 1/2 the players usually dropped out after they get their first death.
And I mean drop out. It's nothing to do with gore or description either since I try to limit things to PG-17 level. And I did already explain the whole point of the game before I started so it's not "hey you just suddenly died" kind of situation either.
The few I got an answer out of, the answer's usually alone the line of "just don't feel like it anymore."
Maybe it's just, I dunno, the idea of death itself that turns people off?
(Well, yeah, it could also be that I'm just a bad GM... Can't denied that. v=3=v )
Anyhow, death is and always will be a tricky issue.
(I do know that a lot of players just aren't as big a risk taker as they thought they were... Though that might be different now with a COC-centric gaming mindset compare to a DND-centric gaming mindset... v=3=v )