That's Lucky, that is.

Level one characters are squishy as milk, and maybe that's what you want, especially if you're running a filter. But what can you do if you don't want to your characters to be so squishy that a single hit from a dagger will kill them? Well I've a couple of ideas.

Fate points like in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, were/are a non-renewable and limited resource that you can spend to get your character out of trouble. Each one of these points should be narratively powerful, able to reverse a killing blow or allow an escape from a trap. These are precious life-saving points and you only start with 1-4 of them and you never get any more.

How about some "Luck" points like in Mekton, where you have a luck stat. Each session you can spend your luck points to increase the result of rolls. At the beginning of the next session the points refresh. This doesn't exactly save the characters life but would certainly help them take down opponents, and climb walls. How many luck points does your character get per session? How about having a new Luck stat or starting with a pool of 6 modded by the characters WIS mod?

Another option is Patsy-Points, these work like the Fate points I mentioned above, but rather than starting with them you earn a Patsy-Point by your character dying. Each time you lose a character you get a Patsy Point. If you lose a second character, you start your next character with 2 Patsy-Points, and so on. It kind of mediates your awfulness as a player, LOL.

Are the points systems described above very OSR.... mechanically at least , OSR is all about the unforgiving grittiness, but they do have their place. Perhaps if you are bringing in new players you can soften the blow, or perhaps if playing with kids. Have a little think about before you start your next campaign, and work out if these or a similar mechanism might be worth a go.