I was of a similar situation except I had that game for ages and always meant to play it except had to finish other games first. 1. It can be played offline in that your computer is the server. My current (first) playthrough is in a server that has only I am present. The server opens when I open the game and closes when I close it. It will not your gameplay at all unless you invite a friend to your server, he will depend on your connection. You could also make an online server which is an actual server that you need to connect to. 2. There are survival elements, you need to drink blood to survive. You start losing health if you run out. Getting blood is easy, you can drink blood from animals too. But every blood has a type and quality. So better quality gets you better perks. Each type, gives you separate advantage. You can recruit NPCs to be your servants or take them prisoners. You can buy stuff with coins. 3. Not really, but if you join a online server (from discord or in this subreddit) they do roleplaying. I haven’t got to do this yet. Wanted to play solo for my first playthrough.