[quote=@Luft]
So, my question is: how exactly should character injury and death be handled in a roleplay where it is a possibility? Is your only option, without resulting to dice that is, is to hope your players aren't shy of their characters potentially getting hurt?
[/quote]

Really depends on how the GM wants to roll with it. I'll explain how I typically do it.

First we need to decide if the RP could use such things. A feel good fantasy setting probably doesn't want to concern itself with things like permanent disfigurement or death. The stakes in those sorts of stories are usually pretty low or superficial, where the plot is more a vehicle to make the players feel powerful. In my own opinion, this is kind of boring and also why I don't participate in those types of RPs. But they do exist, and those that enjoy them would not want their world tarnished with heavy stuff like that.

For the bulk of RPs that are prime for things like bodily harm and death, it's a case by case basis. It should be known that not everything carries the same kind of weight across stories. In realistic settings, death is permanent and non-reversible. Though you have other settings where death is little more than a power nap that a spell can wake them up from. In these more fantastical settings, proper rules for magic need to be put in place to ensure that these powers feel wonderous, but aren't a get out of jail card for everything. This can be done by making more severe wounds heal slower, or resurrection is only possible if you have all parts of someone's corpse. 

If I choose to play with character death/harm, I'm up front with the players about it. I also let them know the likelyhood of their characters getting mirked if it's relevant. Most people who join the RP do so because they want to see their characters challenged and even die to something they can't overcome. I typically don't have to watch them too closely, but power gamers arise from time to time. 

I should also note that play-by-post and tabletop may both be roleplaying games, but they are entirely different animals. Tabletop is a bit more game, and as such is enforced with many rules and even uses dice for number generation. Play by post is better suited for story telling and gives the players and GM greater freedom over what's happening. When my character has to go fight a dragon, the challenge isn't thinking up a strategy that will increase the outcomes of winning, it's creating a story worth reading. That never happens in stories when the characters are never adequately challenged.