It was Goldfinger who said, “No Mr Bond, I expect you to die!” and character death is, we’re told, a genuine threat in Against the Darkmaster.
Slow the game down when it happens, let the players digest what occurred as the death of a hero should be a highly dramatic moment. Then give the player of the dead PC something else to do, such as controlling an NPC, as the rest of the group must get on with the adventure. Of course, Bond doesn’t die.
He’s the type hero defined by his success rather than, say, the 256th Spartan at the Gates of Thermopylae or the heroic Pheidippides. If I ever have to run Against the Darkmaster, then I’ll make sure to avoid all plots involving prophecies of the “Chosen” rising against the evil.
I suspect the brutal and dangerous default world created by these rules will put that inconvenient prophecy to bed quickly, and I don’t think you can always get away with substituting in a Faramir.
Goldfinger shouldn’t have swaggered and monologed; I would have designed a less braggadocious villain and one of my favourite aspects of Against the Darkmaster is you get the chance to do precisely that. The titular baddie isn’t a particular character.
He, or she, is a concept to root the Good versus Evil epic of this roleplaying game around.