Hoe many people have you lost to these attacks?
I enjoy playing DiD, even with NPC's, but when stuff like this happens I usually reload. Townspeople attacking a dragon with their fists doesn't seem too immersive to me.
I've never had a dragon attack Riverwood or any other village or town for that matter.
Not sure what it is with my game but it just doesn't happen even though i've been far into the MQ before. (never actually completed it)
The only time I have had a dragon attack Riverwood is when I fast travel there.
Hmm well I guess that's more realistic. I'll raise a flagon for him tonight.
Riverwood is desloate, with alvor and sven dead, and missing. Lost alvor in the exact same circumstances as the OP.
My current character hasn't lost anybody yet to dragons or vampires after 40 hours.
I had a couple of dragon attacks in Dawnstar but my crossbow with berserker rage took them out pretty fast.
By the way that combo is insane
How funny, I kicked off the following thread today over in the spoilers section to focus on the same issue, more or less:
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1458941-is-alvors-death-inevitable/
That's just foolishness on Alvor's part...
Let him stay dead, and dump his body in the river. That's the punishment for charging down a Dragon with said equipment.
But back on topic: Not many. Both of my characters have excellent ranged attack capability, and I usually am able to get to the Dragon/Vampires before the townspeople get killed off. I think I've lost... 5(?) townspeople total across all of Skyrim since I've been playing (started on 11-11-11).
I personally don't have that difficult of a time with it. That said, I can easily see where some people are having trouble keeping the civilians alive. the fights get tougher and tougher as you increase level, and there's nothing stopping one of your enemies from cheap-shotting a favorite merchant. But I generally don't have too many issues with that.
Adrianne is particularly vulnerable to death-by-vampire because they spawn at the gate, just a few feet away from where she works. Twice I've exited buildings in Whiterun (Belethor's once, Temple o' Kynareth the second time) and discovered a vampire attack attack in progress. Both times I was too far away to prevent her death. I simply had to reload.