Well, you can think about the event engine's effects, like death, as the rolls of the dice common in tabletop rpgs and the game as the Gamemaster who runs the NPCs and tells you what the rolls caused.
Roleplaying elements are usually most used in making decisions who to marry, what to build, who to ally or who to war. And of course in the ingame chat.
Start up traits are good for the character you made them for and as parents stats have significant effect on childrens stats, good stats help your future generations as well.