DM advice: How do you NOT kill your party?

[Satyrn]

I would have no issue with a game where character death was taken off the table. Just don't fudge to achieve that.

But what if I'm playing Wile E Peyote in a game of Fudge?

Or in a slightly more serious game of Catman (starring Adam West), our hero falls off a scaffold in the Chocolate factory. Am I really supposed to pretend the giant vat of liquid clearly labelled fudge isn't conveniently right below him?