That’s awesome. Here are my clarifications/thoughts on your questions.
1. Each archetype comes with two tier 1 skills. Assume that they are tier 0 (novice) in all other skills. During character creation, you can use skill points to either increase tiers in the two archetype skills, gain tiers in other skills, or combo of both.
2. Yes, beginning characters can upgrade the two skills that they begin with due to archetype.
3. That’s an oversight of mine as well as due to the ‘one page’ constraints of the game jam. If you’re doing a mini-campaign of linked cases, then I would reward the players with skill points after each case. I think 5 points would be appropriate, but you could adjust that up or down for each player based on specific accomplishments (e.g., killing the big bad nets you extra 2 points, etc.).
5 points would be enough for a player to add one or two tier 1 skills or upgrade a tier 1 to tier 2. You could let the players bank skill points so that they can save up 10 points to upgrade a tier 2 to tier 3.
Eventually, I will update the one-page rules to version 2. Work has just got in the way. An update will include downtime rules.
Let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you all enjoy playing!
Best,
TS