I had a thought pop into my head when i was reloading a save because my companion got in my way and died (for the hundreth time) and i wondered what is the number one cause for people to re load their saves.

i assume its either death, companion dying, or picking a lock. but i thought perhaps an interesting anecdote might come from such a thread.

I've never reloaded from a picked lock or failed pickpocket or anything like that. The only time i'll load a previous save is if i die or if im stuck/in a game breaking scenario. I got stuck between two rocks in the mountains near riften once and couldnt strafe/jump or shout my way out. I couldnt fast travel or anything!

I let my companions die when they die, this way it makes it more realistic and you never know if it will open up another quest somewhere later on

true, however they usually die in the middle of a long dungeon while carrying a bunch of vaulable stuff, with my self being nearly overencombered. also i might rage a little if my unrelenting force shout friendly fires my compainion

Getting killed and death of a companion, although with followers there`s usually a point I`ll just let them go if they die once too often.

All the usual reasons: dying, follower dying etc...

But I have reloaded on a number of occasions when I accidentally pressed R instead of E and grabbed everything that was in my house stash

Getting a quest I don't want to do, I save before I talk to any NPC's

^^This^^

And I save right before transitioning from interior to exterior cells (and vice versa).

Honestly?

The most I reload is for Radiant Quests. When I'm tasked with going off to kill a Bandit Leader or Animal at a specific loacation.

Only when I get there I find out that I've already been there, and while every OTHER NPC has been respawned the Target NPC remains dead when I reach them.

This is, without a doubt, my most encountered bug in Skyrim. And as it always deadstates the quest I havve no choice BUT to reload.

dying?

when my fight with opponent xxx is not beautiful and elegant enough to be included in a James Bond movie...

Me too. I also save often because the assault counter is bugged and killing an hostile animal without provocation (or even initiating a battle with a dragon with a stealth hit) often results in the action considered an "assault". I want my record clean, dammit! (Obsessive, compulsive behavior )

Mostly same as above.
Although I rarely reload a previous save unless I have no option to (I died). Or if some weirdness occurs, like all of whiterun all of a sudden deciding I'm public enemy No. 1 and proceeding to gang bang me even after I have died. Weird one that. Not often it happens though, only twice. Once in Whiterun and a time before that in Dragonsreach.

I usually just let my followers rest, although I'll move them and lay them in a respectful position, unless they was idiots and got killed through stupidity, no honor in dying from your friends arrows/magics/shouts. So they just rot where they fall.
Although the game seems to know if I like my follower or not, I don't like Sven, but he never seems to die, I like Lydia, she seems to die every other encounter.
I'm sure there is a trope for that situation. (hell, there is a trope for every situation).

Probably accidentally stealing stuff.

death mostly

Dying, accidentally killing a follower and having trouble picking a lockpick.

Every time I see that bloody courier running towards me I quicksave, then reload and disable the bugger. NO, I DON'T WANT TO VISIT THAT BLOODY MUSEUM IN DAWNSTAR and I don't want my journal full of enforced quests that I did not personally choose to do. Free choice, my a r s e!! Honestly, Bethesda!

This is possibly my biggest gripe with the game.

Ill reload when a quest related NPC dies by dragon.

When Draugr do the disarm shout...

CTD, or lockup. Sad but true.

Forgot to take that fortify barter potion.

Dying but that doesn't happen often and saving before opening a Master Lock Chest but I haven't done that too often recently.

The most common for me is after I let the game run while I step away for a while to get something to eat and etc. While I do plan on spending over 400 hours with my Nord, I want the game clock to reflect the time actually playing the game, and not when I leave the game running while I'm away.

After that is character death. My Nord is pretty durable, but when fighting a boss npc and their minions at once, bad things can happen. I'll be blocking attacks from the boss npc and my character will be taking shots from the back, and it doesn't help that I keep forgetting to use war cry and shouts.

I always buy whatever lockpicks I see when at a merchant, so even though I can sometimes lose 15-20 trying to open a master lock, I still maintain plenty enough to not feel like I should reload.

You can use the console to unstuck yourself....TCL....no need to reload.

I also hate how any sneak attack while undetected is considered an assault. Bandits and animals shouldn't count when they will certainly become hostile when noticing my presence.

Assaults were the same way in Oblivion and I eventually got used to this annoyance. I currently have at least 3 assaults and I don't worry about it, as long as I don't have guards coming after me. Picked locks are also recorded under "crime", and I'm not about to stop picking locks just to have 0 crime.

When I die or Follower dies, never thought about reloading for lockpicking. There is a few times early on that might have helped.