Keeping you players alive for dummies

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I'm certainly aware of this option. On the other hand, I don't like Luck, and don't encourage my players to take it, and I don't think I've ever had a player do so. But I see very few character deaths. I think this is partly because GURPS combat isn't very lethal, unless a character has Bloodlust or acts as if they had it; you have to reduce a character with N hit points to -N hit points by inflicting 2N injury points to even have to roll for survival. And it's partly because players who know that combat CAN be lethal play their characters as prudently cautious, rather than as if they were action movie heroes who knew the director was on their side. The knowledge that death is possible concentrates the mind wonderfully.

GURPS combat can be pretty lethal once smokeless powder and repeating firearms appear. The OP is about a Western game with pretty good firearms and pretty bad medicine.

I think the key thing is that the players understand how combat works in the game they are playing. If they approach a gritty 1960s military and paramilitary game like a game of D&D, they will lose a lot of characters.