I'm talking about unimportant named NPC's in towns. I never let them die in my playthroughs because if I do, over all the dragon/vampire attacks, after a few hundred hours there will be noticably fewer NPC's in Skyrim. But usually this needs to be done through console commands (resurrect command), and I kind of feel like I'm cheating...

Do you let NPC's die or replay until they survive dragon/vampire attacks?

Being on the PC, you'll find these to be part of the essential mods of your LO.

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/23906/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/28235/?

I don't let non-respawning NPCs die because there is no immigration to replace them. When something happens that does or could kill NPCs, my character uses her 'detect dead' spell to find any bodies. Then we use the command console to resurrect the named ones that won't respawn. Same reasoning as above. My character's current playthrough is approaching 600 hours and Skyrim could get kind of empty by then without those steps to preserve the population.

Edit: Senor Cinco, thanks for the mod recommendations - tracking those.

I used to let them die, but in my last installation I installed the mods Senor Cinco mentioned, because it's not realistic for civilians to attack a dragon in the first place. Imagine that some war starts, and a plane is flying low over the streets and drops bombs. I know I sure as hell wouldn't run out and start throwing rocks at it, I'd hide in the basemant or something.

My first playthrough I let them lie where they fell, but as noted above the world got really empty after a while. Run For Your Lives and When Vampires Attack definitely help, but on the occasions where NPCs do still die untimely deaths, I tend to resurrect them.

I use a .bat file that toggles hundreds of named NPCs to be essential. If one of them needs to die I toggle the .bat file off, kill the NPC, and then toggle it back on. This allows me to have as much control as possible over who dies, and when.

I can understand an occasional foolhardy farmer or drunken lush running in to combat with at least some reasoning with armor or at least a weapon of some sorts. However, it just seems way to far fetched for every single citizen to bum rush a Dragon, while donned in Miner's clothes and wielding bare knuckles.

I feel I'm giving them a chance to survive. If they fall before they reach safety then so be it. If they are affiliated with a given quest, then a level of reasoning comes into play and either the quest is advanced through the console or it is left to the result of consequence. The former is only implemented under extreme circumstances pending the given character's story. More often the later is exercised, as it is difficult to argue against the acceptance of fate and consequence being at the core of my RP experience.

All in all, I feel as though a game of this type should be structured and written around multiple possibilities with mirrored possible endings to every quest. This not only resolves the issue of having essential NPCs, but invites the player to entertain other options of resolve.

I try to save them (if my character cares) but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDgcc5Sif3k.

Hopefully Beth will program citizens and horses to run away from danger instead of charge towards it in TES 6. They should play some Red Dead Redemption and take note of the horses and townsfolk.

Being on 360, I tend to do a re-load if by chance I loose a NPC that is really needed. Generally though I take precautions.. cause I can't console command them back to life or add a mod to make them run.

So this is what I do:

The two Redguards get left at Whiteruns gate ( just exiting out of the conversation leaves them standing their and they will fight any dragon or vampire that happens to make it into town)

IF by chance I happen to Fast Travel ( which I do very very very rarely) it is never into a town, but to the stables or something close by.

When getting off a carriage ride, I stand their and wait for a minute to see if a Dragon plans to attack before walking into town.

My characters are generally inside by dusk and don't leave til after dawn. Again they will wait out at the stables or some other place rather than walking into town after dark. This is easy to RP anyway, most people do tend to sleep at night and when traveling in the woods, most people would make camp before dark.

I never really had a problem until the DLC Dawnguard. Now I don't load Dawnguard until I am realy to play it.