I see I'm late to this thread, but I'd like to chime in anyway.
In my most recent game, I chose these rules:
- Small(ish) 3x3 embark.
- No moat-the-map or wall-the-map. Can wall off pastures, watchtowers, and the like.
- All structures must be built with blocks or bars.
- All constructions must be built with blocks.
- Exception: single-level outside walls may be made from raw stone or wood. Such walls may not be part of a building.
All furniture must be made of wood, metal, or glass.- Furnaces must be made out of fire-safe material; magma furnaces must be made out of magma-safe material.
- In fact, any structure, construction, or machine that will contact magma needs to be made from magma-safe material.
- Exception: pumps may be made out of glass. Glass is magma-safe but realistically shouldn't be. (Building a pumpstack out of iron or steel is hell.)
- All traps require: metal mechanisms, a smoothed stone floor or a constructed (from blocks) floor, and a ceiling.
- Exception: spear traps do not require a ceiling.
- Exception: stonefall traps can use stone mechanisms and can be built on dirt or rough stone floors. (They do require a ceiling.)
- Metal mechanisms are also required for all gears and all machines. Stone mechanisms are only for stonefall traps and for trade.
- All workshops (and similar buildings) must be underground. Absolutely no exceptions.
- Bedrooms, dorms, and sleeping barracks must:
- be above-ground.
- have a smoothed or constructed (from blocks) floor, walls and a ceiling.
- have a door and a window. The window must be adjacent to a tile that is open to the sky.
- for every bed, there must be at least one piece of furniture that is not a bed.
The workshop and bedroom rules were just to vary from my normal play.
Sometimes I don't allow trade of mechanisms, as it is somewhat exploitative, but this time I did.