sorry if this seems like a really dim question to you guys, but just to be clear: what happens in you have a unique character in play, e.g eddard stark; and your opponent wants to play an identical card? it doesn't say in the rules, so therefore it might be obvious and nothing happens at all, but i was wondering whether an opponent could play the card because it's "already in play"?

thoughts?

Uniques you own/control has no effects on what your opponent can play. The only time this isn't exactly true is a player cannot take control of another players unique character if they already have that same named unique in play or in their dead pile.

So if we both have Eddard (regardless of which version) in play, and I win a challenge against you with Reek - your Eddard is not a valid target for me to take control of. Same result if my Eddard was in my dead pile.