What are the rules for speedrunning a game that might take longer than a day?

Can you pause the timer as long as you continue to record? (for validation purposes)

Are there any exceptions you can pause the timer for? Stretching, restroom, food, etc?

I am new to the community and am interested in running a couple of games I know; only problem is they take a long time.

Appreciate any help, reference, or guidance that can be provided.

Every game has its own rules, you'll have to ask the community/moderators for whatever game(s) you're planning on running.

Thanks ShikenNuggets.

Is there a place I can find the general / base rules for speedrunning anything?

I've checked the Wiki, and a couple other place and haven't really found anything outside of the different categories.

There aren't really "universal rules" for speedrunning. There are some ones that generally apply to any game unless the community decides otherwise. Namely "no vid, no did", don't cheat/hack, and restrictions on platforms/hardware to official releases.

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Generally how it works for like 100% JRPG runs and whatever is "take whatever breaks you need, but the timer never stops." Obviously if the community decides differently, then that's fine, but it's really not an RTA at that point. If you need to sleep because your speedrun is two weeks long (shoutouts to Baten Kaitos), do so. But the timer keeps going. Same with food/potty breaks. For "long but not absurd" runs (like 6-8 hours, say), finding those breaks as points within the run is part of the routing. For 20+ hour runs, you probably do just want to take an actual break (it's unhealthy to even look at a screen that long, let alone concerns over things like food and bathroom), but in all likelihood anyone competing on the leaderboard will do it, so it's probably not a competitive disadvantage.

Yeah I think most of them allow anything as long as the timer is running. But I think some allow breaks. Plus it's not really healthy to sit and not move for many many hours.