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
In a different tutorial/start scenario though? or dialog with the tadpole in the character creation screen? You could have the narrator comment on choices made in the character creation part as well.
Personally the option with the tavern is still my favorite, the mind probing just suits the current narrative better, which is compelling in its own way,
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
Hadn't considered that one could lie when giving those answers heh. Lae'Zel would also be a good point to ask some questions about the player character's past.
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.
I don't remember but doesn't the character roll a wisdom check for the cowering? like later with the gith gang? I get it though, would be nice to see the character's traits define how the tutorial plays out more
I love the mind probe idea, that'd be a great way to close out a Tutorial.
I'd again stress that the tutorial should be separate from the main story mode, a separate launch I mean, an option that can be skipped if desired. But really it could be a cool extension of the character creation process if they built it out a bit.
Like if I'm a pirate to have the background established.Or sure if a noble, then when you get back to Baldur's Gate you should have some vendetta or house drama. Or an acolyte who has an association with some church in the city. Things like that. Outlander types might have a different set up stressing the out of doors angle. The mind probe would be a great way to dish out the char race/class/background choices, in an extended dialog at the end with consequences later on for the main story. That's what I would hope for. But I agree the spelljammer is a weird way to handle a tutorial. Tutorial should go through all the game menus and abilities, and a merchant for the starting equipment ala classic D&D form.
There should be some tension around what you choose to buy at the start. Like do you want to make sure its arms and armor, or a healing potion and scrolls? Money should be tight enough to make some choices there. Or oldschool where rogues have less starting cash than tank types, but get a chance to steal or rake to make up the difference. I think the analog should be as an extended char creation tutorial (e.g. Candlekeep), rather than prologue to the prologue. If that makes sense
The tutorial can be included within the main story and doesn't have to be as stiff as in baldurs gate if you ask me, its already quite alright.
It worked for me in baldurs gate but I thought it was a bit like running a course that was set up just for that day, the entire candlekeep section.
Going through all of the menu might be a bit much, some things like crafting can wait quite a bit, otherwise people just skip most of the tutorial.
The skipping of the tutorial would be an issue if there are character creation selections to be made
I like the background specific tutorials! great place to be picked up by mindflayers as well.
Oh and you also have a unique dialogue (just like the Lolth sworn) with those 2 spiders in gobbo camp, but it's obviously quite different.
what's that option?
But I agree with the overall notion to make custom characters a little bit less generic. I don't mind being a blank slate, but not to this extent. I like the mind probing idea, but do we really need to be mind probed? We start off with a goddamn tadpole in our head, right in the beginning of character creation an ominous voice (the tadpole ofc) already asks us: who are you?
What would be nice is, after pressing the venture forth button, we'd get some sort of short movie/slideshow actually stating who we are, what we did etc (something similar to the 'genesis' DLC that Mass Effect series had). Tie our backgrounds somehow into that, our race, our class, make some choices unavailable to other races/classes/backgrounds. If you choose to play as an origin, you'd also have this small slideshow, but you would obviously unable to pick anything, you'd just be shown what Astarion or Gale did before getting snatched away. That way, people who wanna skip it, can just ram spacebar like they do now and people who actually care about a little bit of story of our customs - can actually have small character defining choices if they wish to.
Oh yeah, I totally forgot that the entire character creation already kind of is a mind probing
I wonder what style Larian will go with when doing the origin exposition in character creation, DOS2 was pretty neat with the little introduction every character had. It doesn't translate well into custom characters so I hope they choose more of a collage style, a slide show like you suggested
