Welcome to the Opera!

Well met, Assets.

Make yourselves comfortable before insanity kicks in.

Yes, it is.

If it fits your character's story, you can choose a traumatic background. If you do, I'd like to see the narrative for that trauma.

I'll look at the point allocations and get back to you, but as the game description says, the characters can't be currently members of any government agency. You can play an ex-agent and have the skill set, but I wanted to try a game where the PCs have neither the direct legal power nor the scrutiny of official agents.

Those are two different things. One huge advantage of multiple players is covering different areas, especially in a game like this, so the answer to the first is mostly yes, you should avoid duplicating professions. As for me, however, everyone can be an ex-agent, if the characters are different enough and you make a good team.

It comes up to 350 for me, which accounts for that extra bond. You can exchange it with 50 skill points.
On page 20 the book explains that you can spend more than one 20-point boosts on one skill, and the bonus skills are just suggestions. You can spend those 20-point bonuses in any combination, as long as no skill level exceeds 80%.

How can I help you with chargen, everyone?

Dirigible: A researcher with the Smithsonian Institution, and expert in anthropodermal bibliopegy (books bound in human skin).

timplausible: I'm thinking of a middle-aged, crotchety FBI agent. He survived a horrific encounter as a young agent, and after that got out of field work. He hid in a desk job for years while he slowly let his life fall apart. But recently he stumbled into another incident, and he figures he doesn't have much to lose anymore. So, sure. He'll join.

MaJunior: Hmm... former personal security for a wealthy philanthropist who mucked around in the occult? A little too much mucking and not enough firepower left him unemployed, but with a unique knowledge that there's more out there? The added benefit being, curiosity is often passed on. The philanthropist ended up lighting a spark in his security, who now wants to know more about what happened to his boss and just what's out there.

Stalker05: I am thinking about making a forensic analyst who got a PhD in Toxicology and then tried to get a forensic analyst post but got rejected. Then he got a job at a pharmacological drug development company but Delta Green saw a nice opportunity to recruit him so they invited him in.

Alepous: I am thinking of an Engineer, on the edge of nuclear fission tech.

If you want to choose that instead of the OCEFT package, you can do that.