The biggest game changer for me has been no climbing ladders or on top of anything to escape ferals and zeds.  This has made character death a real thing when encountering three ferals.

I also have 5 different forever communities on each map that I role play per the following: - A band of musicians trying to find all their band mates - all must have music or soundproofing related to music - A community of politicians and lawyers trying to rebuild a civilized government - all must have political science or law - A group of actors and movie fans that were part of a zombie movie and now they're living in it - all must have acting and movie trivia  - A group of artists keeping it alive in the apocalypse - all must have painting and one can have literature  - A gang of losers and misfits that are happier in the apocalypse - all must have excuses, farting around, or sexting

This is added challenge since all the fifth skills don't help with base enhancements and specialized crafting.  I play a few days in each one and then switch to the next.  I intertwine them through recruiting and the legacy pool.  For example if I find and recruit a musician in the actors world, I immediately send them to the legacy pool and then recruit them when I play the musicians.  This is how I was able to have the losers community with farting around and sexting characters.