I generally play with no rules that I absolutely follow. I have a pretty good time this way.

I'm starting to see why some of you have like 475 hours of gameplay at levels in the 50's though! Walking everywhere? Sheesh!

I forgot a few:
-take a bath every now and then. Especially after clearing dirty, blood-splattered dungeons.
-change clothes according to situation. Wear clothes in town and at home - but the right kind of clothes (don't do smithing in fancy clothes). Stormcloak armor on Stormcloak missions. If I keep the armor on in town, then at least unequip helmet, shield and gauntlets.
-I unequip weapons before going to sleep, and prefer to undress - however, if I'm in the wilderness, in one of those inns with no doors, or have a male follower in the same room (I mostly play female characters), then I put ordinary clothes on and sleep in them.

Hmm, I don't have strict rules, I just do what Raksha would do. She is proud to be a Khajiit and wants her kind to be respected in Skyrim. She tries to be a good citizen and do only that kind of work which she can be proud of.

In course of the game I ended with some kind of Khajiit Companions, with Raksha, Kharjo, Jzargo and Shavari as fighters, and Tsavani to take care of the rest. And I try to RP accordingly, we do quests as a team, not as 'OneAndOnlySuperHero'.

I recommend not doing quests blindly as game wants you to, just do them how your character would do and not be afraid to do things that developers didn't intend you to do. I made some twists in 'Diplomatic Immunity', 'Cornered Rat' and Companions questline. Because of that, Tsavani now lives with us, Shavari also joined our team, and this small Khajiit Companions took over much bigger original Companions and we are now in charge of it! Ha, take that you big-headed Nords

I don't have rules because limits svck and make it less fun imo, why don't do that or this when i can.

1) stone has to make sense like the ritual can only be used for necromancer characters

My Old Warrior follows these rules

1) No magic , even the basic starting spells
2) Only use potions you find
3) No stealing
4) No looting the undead unless it's an ancient legend ie. olaf or dragon preists but even then it's only the artifacts like the masks and nothing else
5) can only take potions and gold from tombs as in thats all he can loot when in a tomb not he has to go to a tomb to get them (not from corpses)
6) Never uses shouts in a fair fight like 1 v 1 melee but will use shouts if outnumbered or on archers and mages as they are cowards and don't deserve a true nords death
7) No fast travel unless by carriage or it is the other end of the map , literally like solitude - riften and you cleared the path there so you know there is nothing new but only one fast travel a day
8) Sticks to unenchanted weapons unless in an extremely unfair fight but even then it has to be that only enchanted weapon for the whole playthrough , I chose Tullius's dwarven sword of leeching as it was a gift I earned through the war
9) Takes things slow and avoids all criminal behaviour and kills all criminals
10) stick to one hold and defend it by doing bounty work and when that is dried up for a bit go exploring to take care of local bandits
11) If I decide to stop playing I have to sit by the fire in breeze-home with my companion, then save and quit

1. No shouts
2. No magic unless rp'ing a mage
3. No fast travel, only carriages to the main cities
4. Don't steal or kill unless forced to do so
5. Equip new clothes/armor if you decide to go in the water with clothes/armor on
6. eat at least twice a day
7. Sleep at least 5 hours each night
8. Don't exploit glitches and other weird stuff
9. Don't loot armor, smith your own (but make sure you scale reasonably and don't get daedric at lvl 20 for example)
10. play on expert mode for realism and don't go into combat against powerful enemies if you know they have a pretty high chance of killing you.