In Star Wars Villainous: Power of the Dark Side, each player will take control of 5 Star Wars characters, namely: Darth Vader, Asajj Ventress, Kylo Ren, Moff Gideon, and General Grievous. Each has their own deck and unique abilities.

In a turn, the active player moves their character to a different location on their board, takes one or more of the actions visible at that spot (often playing cards from their hand), and then refills their hand to four cards. The cards are allies, items, effects, conditions, and more. You must use your cards to fulfill your unique win condition.

One of the actions allows you to choose another player, draw two cards from their deck, and then play one of them on their board, covering two of the four action spaces in one of that player's locations. The fate deck contains heroes, items, and effects from the villain's movie, and these cards allow other players to hinder that specific villain.