heres a example of what i mention above.
the top half of the picture is the game mode bp, here is where you are getting the values to apply to the character and actually applying them. this is on begin play so it will run at the beginning of the level just before the play starts.
the bottom half shows the main menu widget where all you really need to handle is getting the save game and loading a level. i made the level to be loaded as part of the save game object so you could potentially save the players progress in the game as they progress through.
