hey there, I think I'm playing this correctly but just in case - I've only been playing Roland so far, but put him through the Core campaign and just finished the Dunwich Legacy. He's at 3 physical trauma and 4 mental trauma now, meaning he's pretty close to retirement:) - tempted to try for the Carnivale one-shot with him starting at 1 SAN, but we'll see...

anyway, I've been starting with Roland's character gun shuffled into his draw deck, not starting with it already in play. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't, although it's more often I do than not.

I think that's right, but know that Pete starts with Duke in play (I think it says so on the card), so just wanted to make sure.

You are right. Pete is an exception.

Yep, the default state is for all cards to start in the draw deck. Duke for Pete is an exception. Other exceptions would be cards you purchase with XP that have the quality of "Permanent".