Ever since Morrowind I have been playing my single-player video games, especially the Elder Scrolls games with my own house rules depending on the game. These are rules I put on myself to help increase my enjoyment of the game. I'd like to know what you guys have for house rules and maybe there are some ideas I haven't heard of.

My Skyrim House Rules are as follows:

• No fast travel
  
• No crafting daggers for smithing skill-ups.

Don't run into tables or shelves with lots of item on them in house, it makes you spend over 1 hour placing everything back.
Never "climb" mountains for shortcuts.
Never use console commands for self attainment.

Limit alcohol intake

I have 4 basic ones to increase the longevity and enjoyment of the this awesome game:

• No fast travel
  
• No companions
  
• No cheating
  
• Don't touch the difficulty slider

Not even to put it up? B-b-but... okay.

After reading this forum in the last week, the one thing I learned that would break the game for me is:

-Don't powerlevel a single skill

hehe maybe on my next play through. It's set to Expert for my current one.

No fast travel except for carriage use.
Eat at least one meal a day (one piece of meat and vegetable/bread); I've finished a large quest, must have a feast (2 or 3 meats, 2 or 3 cheeses, 5 drinks, at least 1 desert).
Sleep at least 6 hours every 24 hours. If I go without sleep for long I must sleep for 8 to 12 hours to make up for my character exhaustion.
Walk 3rd person through cities. Play in 1st person inside buildings and dungeons.

No rules.
Since when did Skyrim have rules?

I don't normally use fast travel mainly because the journey itself is a lot of fun.

As for house rules, I'm going to try to avoid buying any spell tomes or magic items. IMO it's a lot more satisfying when you encounter them while exploring dungeons or craft them yourself. Buying them from a merchant takes a little bit of the fun out of it.

Also, I will probably skip the Companions and College of Winterhold questlines until I play next time as a warrior or mage character (currently playing a thief).

No drinking potions / recharging items / applying poisons etc while in direct combat. I have to at least sprint away behind a rock or something before I can down a potion. Roleplay-wise I don't think it makes much sense to stop and quaff 16 ounces of liquid while somebody is right in front of you spewing flames in your face or something...

Carryweight and fixing glitches/mysterious or stupid deaths is the only thing the console is for.
If you max all your skills you deserve everything else maxed (perks in this game).
Loot EVERYTHING.
Steal EVERYTHING.

Let's see, I always walk/run/ride a horse to a quest, but I allow myself to fast travel back to the city to turn it in and allow carriage rides when traveling long distances. I kill every deer/elk I see. I make my living by making said dead dear into leather armor to sell. as a worshiper of kynareth when in combat I'll use kyne's peace on wildelife rather than kill them...unfortuneatly I most creatures have hides I want to use, so i justify killing them for the hide as my own personal worship of kynareth and using the bounty she's given. hmm, I think that's about it. My character is morally gray, but as bosmer he as thalmor leanings.

• Only Fast Travel when doing a god-awful Quest.
  
• Watch out for table items.

Women in the kitchen.... Wait not those house rules?

I just made one
don't shout at tables or bookshelves in important locations no matter how fun it is XD
FUS RO!(don't have the last word yet) everything goes flying

kind of ruined dragon reach like this, tables are empty and everything is scattered all over the place

• I don't reload when my companion dies.
  
• I don't reload when I'm caught stealing.
  
• I don't reload If I accidentally kill someone. lol, yes it happens.

I used to have a rule against fast travel, but...yeah, convenience is a hard force to resist.

• If I can't kill it and it keeps killing me... go around it (blasted frost troll).
  
• No using the console.
  
• Craft whatever I can to level up my crafting ability.
  
• Make my companion carry my extra stuff (become a Thane).
  
• Be a mage with heavy armor... be different!
  
• Sneak... a lot.
  
• Nords aren't mages... wanna bet!
  
• Have fun! If it isn't fun, do something else.

No fast travel
Master difficulty

Carriages doesn't count as fast travel does it? I mean no fast travel is tedious. But I use carriages when possible

Well I don't use console cheats so I guess that's a house rule, but with everything else I just roleplay.

For example my nord warrior thinks magic is for little girly men, so he has never cast a spell or equipped a magic item in his life (besides the amulet of Talos which he considers blessed instead of magical), only magic he uses is the shouts, a real man's magic.

You might say he's power leveled his smithing a bit, but he never buys ingots he mines them all himself, and he never takes smithing above his highest skill (which right now is block at 73)

Sorry for double post. My Necro thief is not using shouts. He's real quiet

ATM, no rules.

But when I become much, much stronger, I'll start to limit myself. Less fast travel, limit myself to certain weapons, etc.

I like threads like this. Besides doing Dead is Dead, my rules are:

• No reloading if bad stuff like companion death happens (except in a case of misclick causing me to steal an item I had absolutely no intention of swiping)
  
• No fast travel except carriages
  
• Don't take beeline shortcuts if it means jumping off cliffs or climbing over steep hills and such
  
• Don't just randomly talk to any and every NPC when first entering a town
  
• Don't accept a quest or do anything that goes against that character's personality

Though I do like immersion and RP, I can't enforce eating and sleeping habits on myself. I know it sounds weird, but I'd rather there be some in-game consequence for it. Partly because I'll forget, and partly because of the jacked up timescale in Bethesda games. But I either buy a bed from an inn or buy my own house when I do come back to town at night and need to sleep to wait for the shops to open. I don't sleep in just any bed I can find just because it would be free.

Also, it's hard for me not to exploit mass crafting iron daggers for smithing skills, or shouting stuff off tables when I got FUS ROH!!!

My rules vary depending on what character I'm playing. For instance, I won't be joining the College of Winterhold or the Companions with my rogue. The only rules that I maintain for all of my characters are
1. No fast travel.
2. Carriage travel only to places that I have already walked to.

Room mate and I only two house rules;

• No changing difficulty from Expert
  
• When killed, make a new character

We don't do the whole "No Fast Travel" thing because after you've taken things out in an area, there is little to no reason you should trudge through a barren environment, save the low chance that a random dragon may appear. All it does it make the time draaaag. Though neither of us really abuse fast-travel, either. If there's something in between known locations, or if it's been a few days since I've cleared out an area, I'll walk through it again.

A couple things that Cael posted sort of fall in to our gameplay, but are really "rules" we've set down. No reloading because of an unwanted outcome, unless it's bug-related. And neither of us really accept quests that fall outside our characters role unless there's a reason (ex, me being Imperial, wouldn't normally accept a task given by a Stormcloak unless they hadn't made it perfectly clear they were Stormcloak to begin with)