I'm a relatively inexperienced GM and I've been playing through the Wormood Mutiny with four players, two of whom have no prior knowledge of RPGs outside of World of Warcraft. The latter two players in particular struggles to remember the base rules as is (especially since we mostly game monthly), and I have a hard time imagining that they'd have much fun with the many variant rules in the AP (Plunder, Infamy, ship-to ship combat etc.)
I've considered cutting some of these and possibly altering others. Does anyone have similar experiences or thoughts to share on how to best handle the issue?
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Plunder is pretty basic. It is just a way to convert what you seize into gp, based upon how big the place your are selling it, and how good you are at making a deal. As the GM you can probably just tell them what skill to role, and then tell them what they get when they go to sell off their loot. If they are interested in the mechanics, and want to know how to better influence them, then they should be available, if not, move on.
Also, you can probably keep track of their infamy for them. I played through the path, and although the players tracked our infamy, we never ended up using the special powers it let us access. Letting them know how famous they are getting is good, but that can be completely obscured from the players if needed.
The ship to ship combat system isn't really very good in my opinion. Basically it is just something to get you to the action of boarding a ship anyway. It would be workable to have just a single opposed profession sailor roll to see if your pirates are able to close on the enemy ship. Alternatively, you could skip that roll entirely (perhaps explaining that some ships you chase and lose, some you chase and win, but the game will only focus on those encounters you are able to close with) and go right to a boarding action.
The mass ship combat towared the end of the AP is another area where I think the mechanics are weak. Skipping over those mechanics and just describing the ebb and flow of the battle to get to the tactical PC combats would work fine.