I followed your instructions exactly - copying and pasting the files as described. BoB failed to cooperate and Attila simply froze for 10 minutes+. I believe this was because I had attempted to make changes to the startpos character table and for some reason that causes the whole works to cash and burn. I've uninstalled/reinstalled the assembly kit and I'm going to start over, this time following your suggestions from the beginning. I know from experience this can be made to work, but it looks like I have to be very careful about what I change along the way.
* As expected, a full clean reinstall with modifications made to files (other than those involving characters) worked perfectly. I was able to load as Provence, and to promptly crash when I moused over the family name thing. I will see if modding the startpos directly works now that I've followed your instructions. Sadly no change. Same crash as before; I might need to give up on this particular ambition since it seems to be quite an exercise in futility. Very sad too since it seemed like a fun project in theory.