How to avoid killing your player characters as GM

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by sjmdw45

But it's certainly different than the common default behavior.

Is this thread about rpgs generally, or is it just about dungeon crawls? Because in the great majority of my campaigns, I don't see what you seem to be calling "default behavior." Even when I ran an intentionally combat-focused campaign, it wasn't about that behavior; it was about duels with the smallsword, typically to first blood.