There doesn't need to be an different prologue for every class background and race, there can simply be a one-size fits all scenario that through dialogue acknowledges these things and lets you understand better who your character is, and establishes some character traits that come into play later in the game, such as you're the type of person that will fall over in amazement when they see a dragon, or you have a snarky personality because those are always one of your dialogue options. A part from the Drow and Githyanki I can easily see this happening, you're in a caravan/tavern people ask you where you're from, where you're going and why, establishing your home , your background and some of your personality.
some of these things I wouldn't expect to be as customizable for a Drow, how many hometowns can we realistically choose from for a Drow, the logistics of a Drow MC are still difficult for me to fathom, the Githyanki on the other hand are pretty straightforward considering they're all fighting these nautiloids already, and a prologue would be great for introducing us to such a foreign culture.
You seem to know a lot about Drow, how would you solve it? Does the city of origin has to be more than just flavor? Whould "has been living above ground for a while" and "hasn't ever seen the sun" be something that drow players be interested in? Just how different would your gameplay look like coming from either city?
I don't know a lot about Drow, especially whatever they've changed since 3e, but there's the Capital which all the big houses have a piece of, and where Lolth resides, then there are other smaller cities that are usually dominated or solely under the control of a specific House. I've always gotten the sense that there isn't a lot of room in the Underdark nor a very large ecology to support urbanisation, so the number of cities between all Underdark races is very dear.
As for Drow being a part of above ground society, I've never heard of that, not just because they suffer under sunlight and most people would kill Drow on sight, but because it's tantamount to heresy to leave Lolth's domain permanently, the ones that do go rogue like Viconia and Drizzt are exceedingly rare and don't usually last very long ( I personally wouldn't use Drizzt as a template for anything but what do I know), but I'm sure someone who's more in the know could expand on this.
The prologue doesn't have to be the origin setting of the character but provide for a stage where this can be played out. The interrogation in witcher is pretty alright, just have the mindflayers mentally probe the character and the player answers questions, in addition to the character creator. This way the character creation happens even more in game.
Or include it with quick-time events, similar to the option to deal with the argument that ensues in BG3 right after the gate and you can punch either character (dm: "ok, roll an attack, you miss and now look bad" - love it)
you're in a caravan/tavern people ask you where you're from, where you're going and why, establishing your home , your background and some of your personality.
This is very much what I was think of when I brought this up, I think my mentioning Dragon Age made people think I wanted something as extensive and story relevant as the origins in that, but just anything to establish the custom MC a little, so that we're not flatfooted when trying to roleplay them would be nice.
I especially like your Mind-Flayer mind probe scenario, it sounds like a great way to establish some things for your character with out the possibility you're just bullshitting to get on someone's good side. a RPG pet peeve of mine
Like the Solasta option? altruism, greedy, sarcastic etc
I haven't played Solasta but I think I follow, what I'm referring too is more that the custom character has a personality already set, from when they do a comedy fall when they first see a dragon on the nautiloid to the way they physically react during dialogue and cutscenes. There are also a few character archetypes (dare I say alignments!) that most of your dialogue choices cleave to, that are fine, but put together with the rest of the presentation make the custom MC less of a blank slate, i.e. my interest in a prologue.
