I'm thinking about working on a horror style game, a result of which may be a high PC mortality rate. How do other games deal with this, and how would you deal with it? Do you just assume that the player of a dead character just leaves (assuming no replacement characters) or continues to play through a different role in the game? If the second, what kind of role? What good options might there be to limit players dying before the final act of the adventure? Do you have any other thoughts that may be useful?

Thanks in advance.