Storm of the Century (Decades Challenge) *redo*

At first I would recommend mccc-mod. It makes things really easier to handle, no monster under the bed, humanize vampires, kids/teenager could quit schools and your townies don't die out, if you want. For me it was easier for the names changes. Also it's easier to kill the sims. Delete unused/unwanted townies regulary, before your game becomes unplayable or random sims are deleted.

Which brings me to the death rolls, I used the death and wounded ratio for both world wars, because I was too attached to my sim (and I still miss him, even more when since he is dead) and didn't want him to die too early, he became a doctor and so I've lowered his chance to die. I found this version of death rolls better than the 50/50 rules. I had rolled in world war 2 for all the sims in the game, because my game is mostly settled in Germany, the rest was represented the world, the deathnumber were 1-6/20 for all considered germans who had to die when rolled one of these numbers. I nearly killed almost 100 sims through these 6 ingame years, that was the hardest part at all, but it felt more realistic. You can imagine how happy I was when the planned wife for my heir had a straight 20/20, no harms to her, but she had lost her mother.
Maybe build a cemetry for your sims and engrave the year of death on the tombstone. It's very sentimental later, but it's nice to remember them.

One thing you already do, is keep tracking the important datas. Maybe create a few background families for future husbands/wifes, and keep tracking them too. That was the very first thing I did in my game.

The most important part is to remember that's your game, you rule. If you don't like a rule or don't want someone to die, then just ignore that rule and have fun. Beside these tips, I would say have a community lot, where your sims could met new people or gather with their friends. Avoid the dorms at the university dlc at all cost, you don't have any control about your fellow student there. I've tried and I'm still mad about the mechanics.

Selvadora was fun to play, a truly adventure for the early decades and archeologist, as writer for the national geographic society for example. My founder weren't farmers, they had started their own business, which went bankrupt at the end of ww1 in due of the blockade. If the farmplay is too much hassle, you can follow a different path, the choice is yours.

I think thats all for the beginning and probably more than you ever wanted to read. :D