This. I'm all for Squeen's lethal low-level game, but sitting out for extended periods of time blows. OS games remedied this with tons of henchmen the reigns of whom you could take over when you were dead.
We learned to be
cowards cautious, i.e. quite good at convincing the
other guy to take risks!
Now
that was rrrrrooooolll playing!
Realpolitik style!
At 1st level (start-up) we typically hand-waived traveling to and from the dungeon so once you were out, it was fast getting back on the horse. And with very few HP, you were in-and-out fast too---playing ding-dong-ditch with the monsters who fortified and plotted between visits. After 2nd level, the death-rate drops quickly---unless it's TPK. These were all home-brewed dungeons (then and now). Perhaps they supported that type of play better than the published tournament modules---hence the OSR's early fixation on the megadungeon. It's possible "megadungeon" is really just code for a DIY dungeon you could enter and exit multiple times (e.g. B2 vs. G1). Of course, like the idiots that we collectively are, the focus landed on the blatantly obvious (size) and not its function (multiple forays).
Honestly though, sitting out and listening to your comrades take risks and get themselves into a pickle
is half the fun. Players were always wandering off by themselves so that we had to take turns. We didn't mind---it was intel without risk (and a chance for mockery!). Of course, this was before the Digital Age shredded the human attention span.
With my kids, it's the same---but my wife wisely kept them on a lean diet of synthetic stimuli growing up (no TV/video games/texting/etc. except for a few hours on the weekend). Surprisingly, even after the freedom that came with heading off to college, it stuck! (Unsurprisingly they all because voracious novel readers.) My 20-something daughter prefers to bake, garden, jog or go for long walks around the neighborhood when she has free time. Luckily she still likes playing D&D with her family (going on ten years now).
Another wonderful puzzle piece to what I found to be so compelling at low-levels was that moment when you bumped into the enemy that had casually wiped out your entire 3rd-level cock-of-the-walk party in some past life. For example, you are picking your way through the dungeon, avoiding the orcs that you know are to the east. You try a left instead of right, and then
WHAM! you see a pair of drow scouts in the hallway! OH CRAP! You don't even wait for the DM to finish his sentence before you starting
screaming at him which direction you are running! Complete break down of tactical protocol as the front line scrambles over the back in a race for the exit! And in the Helter-Skelter dash, you---the fleet-footed elven magic-user---runs smack-dab into the skeleton at the Exit that has somehow regenerated...and you are
all alone with your one
sleep-spell (doesn't work on undead), dagger + THAC0 99, AC 10 fancy-shmancy cloak + silly conical cap, and 2-hp. Swallowing hard, you ask,
"Is he blocking the stairs?"...knowing perfectly well what the answer will be.
If you're lucky, your pals (whom you just abandoned) will drag your limp body up the stairs with them...for a price.
Note, in the example above, avoidance was a real choice (no Quantum uncertainty)---hence the OSR's emphasis on non-linear dungeon design. Also, the possibility of very unbalanced encounters existed or that deliciously visceral moment-of-panic never happens. If you repeatedly poked a stick in a hornet's nest...you could very well make a dungeon unplayable for a low-level parties (and the consequences stick!).
Experience and gold are nice...but it's
magic items that can really shift the balance in your favor. And that's why you take The Big Risk and head underground. (Of course, there's good/bad/neutral magic there too.) Consider this: Gygax put a
Wand of Fireballs and
Staff of Healing in B2 for Pete's sake! Also consider what happens in the above scenario with the drow if your silly one-shot magic-user now has a fireball-wand in his hot little hands? It's (panic) BAM! BAM! until unexpectedly <click>...out of charges. (I almost never give consumables more than 1d12---and never,
ever let you casually buy magic in town).
Of course, all this is predicated on the assumption that you are with a patient group who finds being challenged fun and are not sore losers. Clearly, that's not everyone. I personally enjoy a high-risk game, and am strongly adverse to anything that resembles a cake-walks, training wheels, or a padded-cell. I also do not aspire to be an actor in a scripted or improv play performed in my living room (not that there's anything wrong with other people wanting to do that). It's just a hardened mind-set you willing take on that matches this type of play....rolling with the consequences. Are you a gambler? Yeah, losing does suck. It's
suppose to.
However, don't confuse this style with adversarial DMing---that's not the case at all. Players mostly win because the house is secretly rigged a bit in their favor (
ssshhh!). One loss in six still leaves a permanent scar.
Only later, does the campaign-world and wilderness-traveling start to kick in (and lethality drops with a generally more benign environment)---but by then, you all are hungry and totally hooked.
