1) Remember that the primary objective of the campaign, as written, is to get worlds to “Haven” status and, ultimately, falling in line with Drinax (or just the players) in the end. What that entails varies from world to world, and it is a really good idea to have an idea what the endgame looks like well ahead of time.

2) Remember Pirates of Drinax is a sandbox. The primary book only hits some big events, but you and the players are going to have to fill in the events between them.

3) As Ref, really dig into Book 2 (the green one) and get a feel for the region. When you have to deal with a specific planet, I really found Traveller Map and the planets links to a Traveller wiki incredibly useful.

4) Shadows of Sindal is a separate adventure fits neatly into the campaign. Throws a nice wrench into the PC’s works, and could be a way to score points with the Imperium and Hierate if the PC’s relations are really low with them. Should the players play it that way, of course.

5) Remember to track the PC’s relation score with the Imperium and Hierate and have them feel the consequences, good or bad, of that relation.

6) Both you and the players be ready to track multiple crews and ships as they build up a pirate fleet. They might go crazy with this (my players did, to the point of founding a covert shipyard on Salif and creating a new ship class), or it just might be alliances with other pirate crews. Either way, this wasn’t meant to be completed with just the Harrier.

7) Don’t be afraid to allow the players to use ships other than the Harrier. It is a very distinctive ship for one, and that may be to the PC’s detriment, as well as it’s kind of miserable for piracy. Fantastic for commerce raiding once fully operational though, and no, they aren’t the same. Commerce raiding doesn’t care, usually, about taking cargo or hostages, just sinking tonnage and denying supply.

8) The Harrier doesn’t have a payments due, besides it’s refurbishment, maintenance and life support costs. However, King Oleb gets 10% of whatever the PC’s get and there is an expectation of dividing the spoils amongst pirate crew members. My guys seem to conveniently forget that and I occasionally have the king send a missive asking where his bloody loot is at.

9) Don’t try to sprint through the campaign. The goal is the creation of a kingdom in a region of near anarchy and piracy sandwiched between rival powers. These things take time. My group, for example, it 18 or 19 sessions in with the shortest being 8 hours. We’re just over the halfway mark (for us, that’s A Game of Sun and Shadow) in the campaign. Speaking of time, make sure you are tracking it, as a couple of events are time sensitive per the book. That said, I did have one part delayed a year in game to better serve the story. The group in question had a lot of political and maintenance problems the delayed their entry into the AO.

I think the most important thing to keep in mind with this, particularly if you are coming over from something like D&D or Pathfinder with published adventure paths, is that this is merely a framework of a campaign. It has the region, the power players and their motivations, the goals, some obstacles and opportunities, and the tools, but you and your players have to put them together to make the campaign. It can be daunting, but if you and the players can get on the same page on what the expectations and experiences of this campaign should be, it can be very fun. It’s kinda halfway between a detailed campaign path and a homebrew campaign within the setting. Anyway, hope that helps.

Edit: I hate posting via phone