Nowaru

We could remove the death map or replace it with a blank one for new characters. Leave everything else as is.

No, we can't, because in that case, it would be exploiting freebies and would negate the degree of risk, excitement, and a certain form of balance (high risk <-> high reward). Ultimately, you can choose not to take them at all. In this context, the only way to reduce mortality and keep everything as it is is to add some neutral maps (not death maps, but not city maps with artifacts either), but I don't know, I would get tired of the monotony; in the current state, almost any outcome has some tangible consequences. And besides, the chance of dying isn't that high after all)))