I think most of us who have played Kenshi for a long time have tried challenge runs, putting restrictions on what is allowed or adding difficulty in other ways. Please share what you've done or ideas you'd like to try. Include any mods that might be required or desired for the run. Some that I've done, as examples:
I'm currently doing a solo Hiver Prince no trading, no stealing* run. Looting from abandoned buildings is fine, and even stealing from dead/unconscious NPCs is fine. I've installed the RIY+ mod to be able to craft books, but haven't actually used it yet, as I've been able to find books in a few fixed locations and random dust bandit camps so far.
Just before that, I was doing a skeleton only, no purchases except blueprints, no stealing (same exceptions as before), using the RIY+ mod and the new Wandering Recruits mod as a way to get skeleton recruits, and I immediately set up a no walls base in Venge. I got to the point where I had a station house and ore drills, and kind of lost interest because it became like a normal run after that.
I've tried a wanderer run before, where you never set up a base or research, but followed trade caravans around for protection. You can draw enemies into them and then loot them for gear and trade for food and medical items from the caravan. No mining allowed!
Someone posted here a few years back about a route they took through every region on the map, with very little or no backtracking. I started a run where I followed the same path, and was never allowed to return to a region that I'd already left, and I could pick up a maximum of one new recruit per region. Every few regions I would set up a base to train skills on the new recruits. I had to abandon it as I've been traveling IRL for a while and the laptop I use can't handle that save anymore, but it was an interesting one.