My suggested rules are basically the same as the current rules. They're just worded more properly according to the game. The current rules are a bit unclear. First, it says quote: "The game should be "Stock" with no mods, and editing the ini.txt and d_init.txt files is only allowed for turning on the fps counter." As written, this rule should invalidate almost all runs because many people play with non-"stock" settings. Since these don't setting don't change gameplay they probably aught to be allowed. That's why my suggestion only targets difficulty settings. Second it says quote: "World creation parameters should be any of the included defaults in the game". Its unclear whether its referring to basic world gen options or the builtin advanced world gen parameter sets. Third it says quote: "Runs begin before world creation." This isn't explicit about when the run starts and I also don't think choosing your world gen options should be part of your time. Going off of what HexTree suggested, I revise my suggestion to to start the run once you click Fortress. In summary understand what the rules intend, but they aren't written in a way that well conveys that. Edit: I noticed your also from the Midwest. That's pretty cool.

I know this sounds similar to Mountainhome% but in reality it's quite the contrary. In Metropolis% you must grow your fortress to 140 population whereas in Mountainhome% you must get a monarch (Which can be achieved by choosing a dying civilization) then constructing the "true throne". I think Metropolis% would be an excellent test of Dwarf Fortress’s fundamentals opposed to Mountainhome% which relies heavily on world gen RNG. Here is what the rules could be:

The run must be done in an unaltered version of Dwarf Fortress. Game frames-per-second cap must be set to 100. Sow frames-per-second must be set to yes. All difficulty settings must be set to default The run must be done in a world created using Basic options. Time begins when you click Fortress. Time ends when your fortress gets the title of Metropolis.