It isn't a staple of RPG's, in your opinion, I think you mean.
Naw, RPGs (trad games to some) are pretty much about players affecting the world through their characters.
I can point to any number of elements of narrative control built into rpg's from day 1. Spells being the most obvious example, as I said before.
We went over this above where it's been pointed out that spells are a character resource and don't break the conceit that players are affecting the world through their character.
THere's no functional difference between Player 1 overcoming the challenge of climbing through the window by casting a spell and Player 2 adding believable details to the game.
That's exactly the functional difference between an RPG (trad game) and a storytelling game. Essentially, you've (always?) played RPGs with storytelling game elements but I have played RPGs in the "trad" sense and recognize that fundamental difference in the games.
The entire set up of the game is contrived to create interesting scenarios for the players.
I think that means different things to different people.
You never go into an empty dungeon where everything was cleared out a week ago.
I've played in games with worlds run for multiple player groups where such was not only possible but one group of PCs specifically looked for such a place, a dungeon/tomb recently cleaned out by another group, to use as a base of operations. Many GMs do make adjustments to their campaign setting based on the interactions of groups who have played in them.
I do. My Grymvald setting which first came into being in 1974 as a little dungeon built by a kid near a little town so the players had a place where their PCs could purchase gear. As the PCs moved through the dungeon and killed things or died, I updated room descriptions. There were a number of places, bottlenecks, where PCs could find caches of starting level gear if they didn't mind cleaning it.
Periodically, I have advanced the timeline of Grymvald, between campaigns and/or groups, by anywhere from 5 to 50 years. There are tombs encasing PCs from some of my earliest campaigns that would be great places for PCs of today to plunder, others do indeed lie empty.
I'll see if I can find some time this weekend to post about an ongoing game concern which involves two different PC groups potentially happening upon the same cursed sword. It involves a number of things that have been part of this discussion including character background creation and narrative control, as well as PCs finding a location that was already plundered to some extent by an entirely different PC group from years prior.
Bombing the party with a red dragon at 1st level is considered a very bad thing, so, shock and surprise, red dragons are not met on the 1st level of a dungeon.
I'm not sure you've been at this long enough to remember the thrill of hiding from dragons while exploring the Outdoor Survival map with low level PCs. Dungeon Crawl Classics is a recent RPG that fairly well exploits that conceit to the delight of many. Even the character creation phase of the game (which happens in early gameplay) is called "the funnel" because it includes multiple PCs being whittled down in a Darwinian slaughter.
Players have always had significant control over their own back stories and are, in fact, encouraged to create such to bring their character to life.
That's a GM-specific thing but as I pointed out above happens prior to gameplay, for the most part, and if used as a way to gain narrative advantage in an RPG, a GM in the trad game sense would randomly roll most likely for PC family details and such.
Yes. I, too, am sensing a pattern.
Narrative control has always been a staple of RPG's.
By players? Nope. As someone who started RPGing in 1974 I can tell you, Hussar, that you're mistaken on this point.