Thank you playing, and for the questions! I’ve done my best to answer them fully below:
Inflicting 2 wounds vs minions with only 1hp... Is the extra damage is wasted?
It’s up to the GM to determine whether (a) the extra damage or condition carries over to another enemy, (b) the extra damage is “lost,” or (c) the player/PC receives some other appropriate benefit.
What about using the Reapers scythe "vs groups"?
Same principle applies, although in this instance I would almost always transfer the “extra” damage to a monster in the same group.
How is area attack intended to work?
This is super-easy to miss, so I should probably reiterate this on the weapons page, but per p. 24 : “Area attacks and magical burst effects are especially effective against swarms (i.e., the hero rolls with advantage).” So basically “roll with advantage on attacks against swarms,” but also there could be situations where the GM grants some other ad hoc benefit (like extra damage against a group of enemies tightly packed into a hallway or something).
How do you handle disadvantage when rolling with the Beast die? Roll all 4 dice and then drop the lowest? Or roll 3 normal dice, drop lowest, and then add Beast die to that?
The latter (though it would be drop the *highest* for disadvantage). It might be simpler to think of the Beast Die as a separate mechanic that works independently of the initial dice roll. You just “add +1d6” to appropriate rolls (but watch for the “lose control” condition).
Conditions are never actually explained. They're kind of intuitive for players, but how would they work against enemies?
It can be any hindrance or situational disadvantage. Broken limbs, getting frozen in ice, blinded by bright light, whatever. I usually factor it into (a) what sorts of actions an enemy takes (eg, if a PC opens a crack in the Steam Knight’s boiler, then maybe it can’t use its steam blast attack) (b) advantage/disadvantage against the enemy (eg, giving a PC advantage on their attack against Candelabra Spider bc it has “Condition: limbs bound in rope”). In an earlier version, there were specific conditions with explicit mechanical effects PCs could inflict on enemies, but it just wasn’t worth the complexity.
Amulet? How does armor work in this game?
The Summoner’s Pentacle decreases all damage received by 1.
How much Blood can you spend on a single roll?
As far as I’m concerned, if you got it, you can spend it! Though a GM can certainly substitute their own ruling for a different vibe or difficulty curve.
Can you spend Blood first to get a +1, roll badly, and then spend Blood for a reroll?
Yup!
When a player attacks an ally (Beast loses control etc), I assume they roll the Attack move. How much HP loss is each "wound" the attacker inflicts? I assume the defender can use the Dodge move.
I treat it as “defender-facing”: the Beast doesn’t roll against the defender, we just assume the Beast is out of control and attacks. Usually, the defender gets a reaction roll, like Dodge (to keep things feeling fair). For the damage, it depends how hard you wanna go. I usually leave it at the default Major Trauma (1d6) but YMMV.
Trauma is wildly dangerous, which is ok, but it's VERY unpredictable. Even Minor Trauma will do 5-6 HP damage somewhat regularly. Perhaps change the damage scale (use smaller dice?) or change it to a flat number of Wounds, the same as enemies use.
It’s intended to be swingy, because I wanted every failed roll to feel dangerous—but feel free to alter to taste!
But that being said, I actually think it *feels* more dangerous than it really is. Outside of Epic Trauma, every PC can take at least one hit, because the max damage is 6 and HP starts at 8. Secondly, dropping to 0HP doesn’t mean a PC dies. They are only “taken out,” so it’s left up to the table’s interpretation of the fiction what being “taken out” means in context. Could be knocked unconscious, get thrown into a nearby pit, or start bleeding out.
I hope those answers help, let me know if any of that didn’t make sense!