I just finished reading through Novus for the first time and wow! It was everything I hoped for and more.
Glad that you are liking it.
However, I am left with a couple of questions. Are there any guidelines floating around somewhere for putting together Backgrounds and Talents?
I am going to presume that this is 2 separate questions - "how to make Backgrounds" and "how to make Talents", and not a single question on how to combine the two (which should not, IMO, be done).
Backgrounds - These are essentially the skills learned as the character was growing up. There are 20 skill ranks in every Background Package, spread among the skills listed within the Background. You will also notice that every Background contains the same 2 skills (Perception and Lore: Local Region) with at least 2 skill ranks in both those skills.
As it says in the preface of the Backgrounds section of Novus, no individual skill should receive more than 3 skill ranks. And if you give a bucket skill (such as Combat Skills, or Lore or Crafts) more than 3 ranks, then it is up to the player to place those ranks in specific versions of those skills, also following the "no more than 3 ranks per skill" rule.
Talents - There are no rules for creating more Talents out there anywhere. However, have you acquired Libram Novus #3 yet? It contains about 50 additional Talents for use with Novus.
I'm sure I'll have more questions later.
And I am sure that we can come up with answers for those questions as well.
I also wanted to thank the powers that be. I mis-typed my email address when I registered and never received the conformation emails. One quick message and I was fixed. Thanks.
You are welcome. And again, welcome to the forums!