I prefer systems that take character death out of the mechanics and place it in the hands of the players and/or GM, like 7th Sea. The GM can use the dice to beat on a PC til they're Down, and then it becomes a matter of narration and GM preference to say "...and then he kills you", or dial it back and go some other route, such as "Now that I have you at my mercy, let me explain my evil plan to you in exhaustive detail before I leave to die in an elaborate trap that will inevitably have a minor flaw that will allow you to escape and foil my scheme." This allows for the possibility of PC death, but eliminates the meaninglessness of random dice-dictated death.

-- Ben

So now that Gnarl is dead... Can we get a copy of his character sheet with a full bio he sounds like a fun character to have as an NPC for a D&D game.

Gnarl is alive again. I have no ide where it is, but Dan has posted a link to the Character sheet here on the forums.