How to alter the speed in Dwarf Fortress

I found one of the easiest ways to simplify the game without hacking or removing many sources of Fun is to lower the population cap. I found that once my fortress grew to 100 dwarves or beyond, I couldn't figure out how to manage all of them and keep them working productive jobs. So instead they all just sat around throwing parties and pestering my productive dwarves. Until you get enough experience to handle a fortress that size, try lowering the cap to 40 or 50 dwarves.

To do this in v0.31.08, edit data/init/d_init.txt and change the value of this line:

[POPULATION_CAP:200]

Note: your actual population may still go above the cap you set, you just stop getting new immigrant waves after you reach or surpass that cap. And apparently births don't respect caps. Also I think (but I haven't tested) that you can change this mid-game if you save and quit first.

Turn them into rock blocks (since a lot of blocks will go into a single bin in a storage room and that's much neater). Clearing every stone takes a long time, but you can clear certain areas using burrows:

1. Designating a burrow over the area you want to clear.
2. Select a lowly mason who will be your exclusive stone block maker and assign him to the burrow.
3. Build a mason's workshop inside the burrow.
4. Use the profiles screen on the workshop to restrict the dwarves that can work there to your chosen mason. (You'll need to have a manager for this.)
5. Set make rock blocks to repeat!

Your lowly mason will dutifully go about their business selecting only stone from the burrow and will automatically take breaks to sleep and eat, so this is a pretty low-maintenance method.