In the original "Traveller" RPG (we called them the "little black books") you could get killed during character generation! The game also had a fairly deadly c

In the original "Traveller" RPG (we called them the "little black books") you could get killed during character generation! The game also had a fairly deadly combat system; often the only way to "win" was not to fight. (If you died, you could always introduce a replacement character at the next spaceport.) It probably cost them some popularity long term, but it also made for an entire galaxy of world building. (Younger kids will probably not realize that Traveller was likely an inspiration for the "Firefly" show. When I first saw the show, I said "That's Traveller.")