Question: Ackbar says to "play [him] from your hand" in the middle of a battle. To do this, do you have to pay his cost?

Also, the Sith deck has a Secret Droid card (or something to that effect) that, when you win the edge battle, says to "put it into play". Do you have to pay the cost to do this?

Are these two different effects?

Thanks.

Hans Chung-Otterson said:

i asked a question like this a couple weeks ago…

the majority says akbar has to be paid for outta your hand, secret droid is free

Put into play doesn't require paying for it

Play from  your hadn does.

Relevant rules text, p. 27 of the rulebook.

Put into Play
A card that is "put into play" is placed in the play area designated by the card text at no resource cost and ignoring any play limitations.

Since the game makes a distinction between "play" and "put into play," for the former you must perform all necessary steps as if you were playing the card normally during your Deployment Phase. For the latter, you follow the rules noted above.

Boose30 said:

It is not a matter of majority as you say, it is a matter of the rules. This is answered twice right in the rulebook on page 13 and again on page 27.

Play describes an action where a player pays the resource
cost of a card in hand and transfers it into play (for a unit
card or an enhancement card) or resolves its effects and
then discards it (for an event card).

Put into play describes an effect that takes a card from
an out of play state and transfers it directly into play
without paying its resource cost. Objective cards are put
into play from their owner’s objective decks.

put into play
A card that is “put into play” is placed in the play area
designated by the card text at no resource cost and
ignoring any play limitations.

Fantastic! That's what I intuited but I wanted to make sure.

Thanks, everyone.