Now that I have the expansions, and enough time to actually start playing, I'm going to be starting my family on the campaign.

My 17 year old will have no problem. He's pretty creative and can come up with some interesting stuff on his own.

My wife is not a tactical mastermind, but she's competent enough to understand the rules and remember her abilities. She won't likely do anything too 'creative' but she'll do fine.

The problem will be with my 9 year old daughter. She's pumped to play the game, but I'm afraid that the various rules, options, and character abilities may overwhelm her a bit.

My two year old is probably the most excited to play. Should have seen his face when I was going through the figures. He's the biggest star wars fan in the house, but I'm going to make him wait a few years.

We play lots of games, and my daughter doesn't have issues with any so far, but if there are too many options, she tends to suffer from AP...and then her brother will just issue orders to her, and then you can kind of see her interest die a little each turn. She's never played a game with this many options and rules before.

So with that in mind, which characters are the most straight forward to play? Who's abilities are the least exotic, or easiest to understand.

She's likely to want to play one of the females, or perhaps the wookie. Are they good options or should I try to steer her in another direction?

I would rank them this way, easiest at the top, and most difficult to play at the bottom:

1) Gaarkhan

2) Fenn

3) Diala

4) Gideon

5) Mak

6) Jyn

Gaarkhan is pretty straight forward, as are Fenn and Diala, but Diala's upgrades tend to do some goofy things.

Gideon is iffy: He doesnt do much himself, his power is in giving actions to other heroes. Might not be the most fun for her to play, but you never know, she might get really analytical and have the most fun figuring out who best to give an action to?

Jyn and Mak require the most finesse to play effectively. Mak with ambush and Jyn with quick draw both have to be precisely played to be most effective. And Jyn's upgrades tend to be more goofy than Mak's.

And as for your 2 year old, he gets to help the Empire by moving figures, rolling dice, and making "pew pew" noises!

I was considering Gideon for her actually. Thought I doubt she'll like the character....frumpy old man may be hard for her to connect with. I figured Jyn might be difficult after glancing over a few abilities.

I'll push for the wookie or Diala I think. Thanks much for the advice Fizz!

LOL at the ideas for including the little one. We usually do some younger games with the whole crew (animal upon animal, go away monster, carcassonne jr), but maybe we'll bring him in on the IA games. He wears stormtrooper pajamas and sleeps with his blaster rifle, so I'm sure he'd be into it. I could even let him pick my deployments.

He wears stormtrooper pajamas and sleeps with his blaster rifle. I could even let him pick my deployments.

Yeah! Plus you would have someone to blame when things go horribly wrong! Sounds like the kid really digs Star Wars, you should find a way to include him. Are you really going to be the horrible dad that denies your son the opportunity to learn from you? Last time i checked, that didnt work so well for Darth Vader in the end....

My ranking as far as ease to play:

1. Gaarkhan
2. Fenn
3. Diala
4. Jyn
5. Gideon
6. Mak

That being said, some caveats...

1. Gaarkhan is super awesome If you genuinely just love to smash, Otherwise, his shine can tend to wane after time.
2. Fenn's ability is boring. Lone Wolf can help - as every little bit does - but his blast is boring. (and underpowered, IMO)
3. Diala is a lot more fun than people give her credit and her upgrades are great. She's not as straight forward as Gaarkhan or Fenn, though. The fact that she's so tanky makes her a little more forgiving than Gaarkhan IMO, but YMMV.
4. Jyn is fun. My wife's first hero from her first campaign and the reason why the family loves the game as much as it does. Not hard, just not as straight forward to master as the first three.
5. Gideon is relatively easy, but if you're not a died-in-the-wool support person, Gideon sucks a bunch. He does a *very* good job of embodying the 'support' role.
6. I find most players see Mak's ability and go "Wow! Pierce two on all my attacks, he's an amazing sniper!" but after a couple of missions they find out how flimsy his ability can be and tend to feel cheated. Very situational and takes very good understanding of the rules / mission as well as good situational awareness to play him very effectively. Definitely not a 'first time around' hero.

I don't think that any of the heroes are hard per se... But there are certainly heroes that are easier than others, as well as heroes that are a lot more fun when you have a really solid grasp of the rules and the game itself.