History of persona rules

The rules for personas decide which cards count as the same character, starship, vehicle, weapon or device, so that a player can't have two versions of one character on the table at once. Decipher introduced personas in Hoth (1997) and wrote the core rules into its Glossary; the Players Committee later widened them to cover Virtual cards, more card types and new characters.

Decipher era

Hoth (1997)

The persona mechanic arrived with Hoth, whose Commander Luke Skywalker was a second card for the character already printed as Luke Skywalker in Premiere.

Glossary 2.0 (1998)

Decipher's Glossary Version 2.0 (November 1998) set out the rule: different versions of a single character are part of the same persona, and no more than one version of the same unique persona may be on table at the same time. Cards that name "Luke" apply to every version of the Luke persona (Luke Skywalker, Commander Luke Skywalker, Son of Skywalker), and "Chewbacca" and "Chewie" are interchangeable.

The Glossary also introduced the persona replacement rule. During your deploy phase you may replace one of your characters on table with another version of the same persona from your hand, for free, if the new version has power and ability at least equal to the replaced card's and obeys its own deployment restrictions. Its example: Luke Skywalker (power 3, ability 4) may be replaced by Commander Luke Skywalker (power 4, ability 4), but only on Hoth, because Commander Luke Skywalker deploys only on Hoth. Weapons, devices and Effects on the old version move to the new one if they still apply; the rest go to the Lost Pile with the replaced card. Different versions are still different cards, so Grimtaash, which looks for duplicate cards, does not treat a Luke Skywalker and a Commander Luke Skywalker as two of the same.

Crossing over was defined in the same Glossary. A character who "gives in" to the other side of the Force through Epic Duel moves to the other player's side and conceptually takes on a new identity, as Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader; the opponent may not deploy that persona again for the rest of the game.

Starships, permanent pilots and the Emperor

Combination cards carry more than one persona. Death Star Assault Squadron includes the personas of Darth Vader, DS-61-2, DS-61-3, Vader's Custom TIE, Black 2 and Black 3, and when a unique card is placed out of play, every persona on that card, including starship and permanent pilot personas, may not be deployed again that game.

Decipher's Glossary Supplement (2002) kept three separate characters apart: Darth Sidious, Senator Palpatine and Emperor Palpatine were three distinct personas, "unrelated to each other for all game play purposes", referred to as Sidious, Palpatine and Emperor.

Players Committee

Advanced Rulebook 2.0 (2013)

The Players Committee's Advanced Rulebook 2.0 defined a persona as the different versions of a single character, starship or weapon, "even if they are on different sides of the Force". Any card that targets a persona may target any card that contains it, so Lando In Millennium Falcon counts as Lando; but only character cards may persona replace, and cards that deploy on a character persona must still deploy on a character card.

It also defined different versions for persona replacement: two cards are different versions if their titles differ, or if one has an expansion icon the other lacks. That let a Virtual card replace the Decipher card it reworked, for example Commander Luke Skywalker (V) replacing Commander Luke Skywalker. Cards with exactly the same title are the same persona (for example Laudica and its Virtual version).

Advanced Rulebook (2023)

The current Advanced Rulebook extends the persona rule to unique devices and vehicles as well as characters, starships and weapons. Each player may have their own version of a unique persona on table at the same time (each player may have a Lando), but not two cards with the same title, and two exceptions apply to captives and stolen cards.

It also changed the Emperor: "All of his cards share the same persona, his true identity — 'Sidious'." Text that names Palpatine or Emperor refers to the Sidious cards with that word in their title. Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader, by contrast, are two people for game purposes and may both be on table; if both are and one crosses over, the player who now owns both must choose one to be lost.

Crossing over now changes a card's owner, allegiance icons, persona name and card title, following Table 5-1: Anakin Skywalker becomes Vader, Leia becomes Lady Vader, Luke becomes Son Of Vader and Ben Solo becomes Kylo. Converting (for example Dark Side Lando Calrissian being "replaced" by a Light Side Lando, or Double Agent on the Tonnika Sisters) is a change of loyalty, not persona replacement.

Appendix D lists the standard persona names, including starship personas (Executor, the Falcon, Slave I, Vader's Custom TIE), weapon personas (Vader's Lightsaber, Qui-Gon's Lightsaber, Maul's Lightsaber, Ahsoka's and Asajj's lightsabers) and character personas, plus the non-unique names "Skywalker" and "Fett".

Persona pages

The wiki has a page for every persona with two or more different cards; each lists the persona's cards in release order with pictures. See Category:Personas.

Characters

4-LOM · 4-LOM's Concussion Rifle · Admiral Ackbar · Admiral Motti · Admiral Ozzel · Ahsoka Tano · Airen Cracken · Anakin Skywalker · Asajj Ventress · Asajj's Lightsabers · Aurra Sing · Aurra Sing's Blaster Rifle · BB-8 · Bail Organa · Bib Fortuna · BoShek · Boba Fett · Bossk · Bossk's Mortar Gun · C-3PO · Cad Bane · Cal Alder · Captain Khurgee · Captain Madakor · Captain Panaka · Captain Yutani · Chewbacca · Chewbacca's Bowcaster · Commander Praji · Corran Horn · Count Dooku · DS-61-2 · DS-61-3 · Dack Ralter · Dannik Jerriko · Darth Maul · Darth Sidious · Darth Vader · Dash Rendar · Daultay Dofine · Dengar · Dengar's Blaster Carbine · Din Djarin · Doikk Na'ts · Eli Vanto · Ezra Bridger · Figrin D'an · Finn · Garindan · General Veers · Grand Admiral Thrawn · Grand Moff Tarkin · Grogu · Han Solo · Het Nkik · IG-88 · Ickabel G'ont · Jabba the Hutt · Jango Fett · Jar Jar Binks · Jyn Erso · Kanan Jarrus · Ketwol · Kylo Ren · Kylo's Lightsaber · Lando Calrissian · Lando's Blaster Rifle · Laudica · Leia Organa · Leia's Blaster Rifle · Lieutenant Blount · Lobot · Luke Skywalker · Luke's Lightsaber · Maarek Stele · Mace Windu · Mara Jade · Mara Jade's Lightsaber · Maul's Lightsaber · Moff Gideon · Mon Mothma · Nalan Cheel · Nien Nunb · Nute Gunray · Obi-Wan Kenobi · Orson Krennic · Ortugg's Ax · Owen Lars · Padmé Amidala · Paploo · Piett · Plo Koon · Poe Dameron · Qi'ra · Qui-Gon Jinn · R2-D2 · Rayc Ryjerd · Red Leader · Rey · Ric Olie · Rune Haako · Sabine Wren · Sergeant Doallyn · Sergeant Narthax · Tedn Dahai · Tigran Jamiro · Tycho Celchu · Watto · Wedge Antilles · Wes Janson · Wuher · Wullf Yularen · Yoda · Zev Senesca · Zuckuss

Starships

Black 2 · Black 3 · Blockade Flagship · Booster Terrik · Chimaera · Colonel Jendon · Dutch · Elis Helrot · Executor · Gold 1 · Green Leader · Green Squadron 1 · Green Squadron 3 · Hound's Tooth · IG-2000 · Maul's Sith Infiltrator · Millennium Falcon · Mist Hunter · Onyx 1 · Pulsar Skate · Punishing One · Queen's Royal Starship · Radiant VII · Red 1 · Red 2 · Red 5 · Scimitar 2 · Slave I · Tantive IV · Vader's Custom TIE · Vader's Personal Shuttle

Vehicles

Blizzard 1 · Jabba's Sail Barge · Lieutenant Marquand · Rogue 2

Weapons

Anakin's Lightsaber · Boba Fett's Blaster Rifle · Dooku's Lightsaber · Galen's Lightsaber · Han's Heavy Blaster Pistol · Obi-Wan's Lightsaber · Qui-Gon Jinn's Lightsaber · Sidious' Lightsaber · Vader's Lightsaber · Zuckuss' Snare Rifle

See also

• Persona
• Uniqueness