I've always toyed with the idea of making some stories for my kids in Ren'Py. Although, I've been toying with the idea for so long that I might get them done in time for the time I have grandchildren.
Visual Novels (whether Ren'Py or otherwise) can be roughly divided into 3 groups:
1. Zero-or-minimal interactivity. A sequence of scenes with the occasional multiple-choice menu. When you get the occasional branch or maybe some randomness, it quickly leads to either a merge with the other branch (sometimes: just missed content on one side) or a Bad End. These are probably the vast majority of VNs, and the reason VNs have such a bad reputation - they're basically equivalent in complexity to the dialogue of a single NPC in a real videogame, just with more useless filler. At best these can be a way of the author showing off their ability to draw.
2. Moderate interactivity. Although still clearly based on a DAG of menus connected by scenes, these have a little state and long-term consequences from early choices. You might get a concept of player stats or custom menus (see #3) for a change, but they're not critical. Most "good" VNs aspire to this.
3. High interactivity. Since they have all the essential complexity of a real videogame, these really don't deserve the stigma of being called Visual Novels (even though they're implemented on a VN engine), and it's unfortunate when they are tagged as such (because that means people will filter them out). This doesn't actually make them good (many of them comparable to the slop that comes out of RPGMaker etc.), but at least they're meaningfully called games. The critical factor here is you revisit the same "menus" multiple times in a playthrough; often these menus have custom UI (for example "click where you want to go on the map"). Usually you have some kind of resources to manage and there's a meaningful day counter (where each day you get roughly the same choices).
Visual Novels is typically somewhere between just keep clicking to read (like a ebook) or some choices (like a choose -your-own-adventure book). But I've also seen one Ren'Py game with a strategy game (hex grid turn based, IIRC) in it, because after all it's still a programming language.
Is there any interactivity?