To all those who role play their games, do you go as far as giving your character personality traits? For example, my character hates, hates spiders and the undead. I'm talking more draugr here rather than things like vampires and ghosts. He especially loathes spiders.

Why yes! When I come home, I switch to regular clothing to look more "motherly" and "wifey". I always talk to the kids, check in with the hubs. I have a back history in my mind - in all the previous "times", I was alone (Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion). In another land (RL) I had a love and he abandoned me. I have always done my best to live honest, protect the weak and make the land a better place. In this time and place, I allowed myself to take a husband and felt compelled to adopt some children to give them a better life. I always seek gifts for them on my journeys.

Always.

One of my characters really likes the color blue. He picks up anything blue and shiny and has a large collection of Sapphires. It was difficult to part with the two flawless sapphires Madesi asked for. They were hard to find and they're so pretty. He also dislikes messes in the home and will often clean them up...even if it just means stuffing junk in a drawer instead of properly disposing of it. It sorta became a problem for his Lakeview home.

I guess I give them the traits. To me, it feels more like these traits develop as the character develops. I come up with the story idea, the character fleshes it out.

I didn't think of characteriscs before or during character creation. For example, my Orc grumbles to himself all the time while traveling. He walks/runs everywhere as he doesn't trust a horse. He also dislikes rain and the dark and only stays in cities long enough to manage his business and then he's off to the woods. My dark elf thief likes living in Riften and being seen as a contributing member of society. He dresses in fancy clothes and likes to share his wealth with the merchants. He also does not do any dirty work in Riften and he's one of the few characters that has an opinion on the Civil War at all.

None of this was planned. The characters tell me.