I'm actually really fond of the "defining elements of your character and background by way of the Tadpole getting to know you" angle.
Like NW2's harvest fair, running a largely non-combat tutorial prologue that's based in your character's memories as the tadpole is trying to build a picture of your mind, and letting you tell it what you remember about yourself and who you are - it presents the world space and populates it from that, and it won't necessarily be "right" to what you the player have in mind, because it's not exactly "right" in universe either; it's the tadpole trying to construct a world that you can slip into in your dream state - but it lets you tell the game things about yourself in an immersive way, that can then fall apart into the crashing ship 'combat' section of the tutorial prologue.
