What is the difference between CYOA and RPG?

The main difference is that a choose your own adventure (CYOA) is a branching story where you pick from set options, while a role-playing game (RPG) gives you a character to develop and usually involves stats, combat, and freeform decisions. In a CYOA, the author writes every path in advance and you navigate between them, so your agency is choosing which prewritten branch to follow. An RPG, whether tabletop or video game, lets you build a character, gain abilities, and often act in ways the designer did not script directly. The two overlap in gamebooks, which are CYOA stories with light RPG systems like hit points and dice. If you want branching choices without a rules engine, a visual builder keeps it story-first.