Originally Posted by sublimeclown
I'm confused by this. My understanding of RPGs is that they are about roleplaying as a character through a narrative story, which may involve customizing your character. I've never thought of RPGs as being defined by being able to change the core game mechanics/rules. In a game like FF7 for instance, I don't recall being able to change the max number of characters in your party or how often random encounters occur. You just had to play by the rules of the game. That's what makes it fun and challenging.

RPG is an extremely broad genre that contains a large number of sub-genres and permutations. This is the difference between open and closed RPG systems. A closed or restricted system often doesn't allow you to do things like change who your character is or how they act in certain parts of the story. You're along for the ride, but you aren't really in control, as you have pre-written characters and linear storytelling. These types of RPGs often share a lot of similarities with the adventure games genre, in which the player assumes a pre-written role in an interactive story that is often driven by exploration or puzzle solving, instead of direct character choices.

An open or unrestricted system can allow you to make your own character, set in-game details for them (background options, even system options), determine how they progress, and give you options on how they act in parts of the story, with less linear storytelling (or at least attempting to have less linear storytelling). You have more control over the world in general. This is the thing that attracts a lot of people to ttrpgs, the greater level of control you have over your characters, their choices, and the world. "Railroading" is a big concern for a lot of ttrpg players, and game masters trying to exert too much control over the choices of the players often get accused of railroading. Now, some people go a little nuts with the level of control offered in ttrpgs, but that's a whole other conversation.

Both are RPGs, but they differ in the amount of control and customisation that the player is allowed to have on the world and the character(s). If someone prefers closed systems, that's fine, options are supposed to be optional, after all. Difficulty sliders and other individual settings are pretty normal for video games based off of ttrpgs. No one here actually wants 10 pages of individual options, a lot of what is being discussed falls into broader categories, such as wanting a "strict" 5e rules setting, which would encompass a lot of game changes. Take a look here for the range of mechanical behaviors changed by the difficulty sliders in Neverwinter Nights. It has a lot of mechanical impact on how spells, statuses, combat and other things work in game.