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Welcome to PACG!
1. Yes. It is enough. The more characters you have, the more you have to emphasize exploring multiple times on turns by playing blessings/allies. Essentially, the more characters you add the more the game switches from forcing you to discard cards for damage to forcing you to discard cards to explore. Don't forget, if your characters spread out, you can temporarily close locations when the villain is encountered, so you won't have to get through all 60 cards in the location decks. And you can do more than just 2 explorations per turn. As long as you have a way to explore, via a card or a power, you can.
2. If a card doesn't have a limit on what situations it can be played in, you can play it in any situation.
If a card in your hand does not specify when it can be played, you can generally play it at any time, with the exception that during an encounter you may only perform specific actions at specific times.
Cards Do What They Say. Read any card as it is encountered or played, and do whatever it says as soon as it makes sense to do so. Let the card tell you what to do, and don’t impose limitations that aren’t there. You can play an armor card even if there isn’t one in your deck list. You can play a Cure spell even if it’s not your turn. You can play a blessing on a check even if someone else has played one. Cards say everything they need to say.
Cards Don’t Do What They Don’t Say. Each card’s powers reference specific situations, and if you’re not in those situations, you can’t play it. If a card says it works on “a check,” you can play it on anyone’s check, but if a card says “your check,” it only works on yours. You can’t play a Cure spell to reduce the amount of damage you’re taking, because Cure isn’t about reducing damage. You can’t play Detect Evil to examine a location deck that has no cards. Your weapon doesn’t help you acquire new weapons. Each card tells you what it’s for, and you can use it only for that.
So blessings for example add a die to checks. It doesn't matter whose check or where it is happening or what kind of check. It will add a die. And some cards say they can help a character at your location (which would include you) like Potion of Ruggedness. But some cards (like Light Crossbow) say they can help combat check at another location. And some cards say they can only be played on another character at your location, like Valeros or Lem's 1d4 power. And some cards say they only help on your check. But you can only help another character defeat or acquire their encounter. You can't defeat or acquire it for them. So you can attempt their check for them, or play a card like Thieves' Tools to defeat a barrier for them. Whoever encounters the card has to be the one to defeat or acquire it.
3. Strength does suffice. For a combat check, you can either use a card that says "For your combat check..." or you can use Strength or Melee.
Most monsters and some barriers call for a combat check. Weapons and many other cards that can be used during combat generally tell you what skill to use when you attempt a combat check; if you don’t play such a card, use your Strength or Melee skill.
4. In general, correct. There are a few cards that you play after you roll, like Luckstone. And there are a few cards you can play to re-roll the result. But in general you have to play cards before you roll. When attempting a check, there are a specific set of steps to follow:
Attempting a Check
Determine which die you’re using.
Determine the difficulty.
Play cards and use powers that affect the check (optional).
Assemble your dice.
Attempt the roll.
Take damage if you fail a check to defeat a monster.
As you see, you are playing cards before you assemble the dice and attempt the roll, so once you roll, unless a card says to play it after rolling, you can't play a card to modify the check (i.e. no blessings after the roll).
5. That sounds like Swallowtail Festival. It says that if there isn't a next card you can close it automatically.
Here is a link to a guide that I made that gives examples of playing cards, having an encounter, and making checks. You might find it helpful.
1. On a full 6-player game, there will be 80 cards on the table. And yes, even in 6-player games, 30 turns is enough. Remember that you can explore more than once per turn if you have cards that allow it. And you should do so, especially on games with more players. I've found that 6-player games tend to cut the time close much more often than 2-3 player games.
Also keep in mind that if you've shuffled each location deck, there is only a 10% chance on each location of having to explore every card before encountering the villain/henchman. I've been able to close a location on the very first explore, of the very first turn of a game simply by encountering a henchman as the top card of a location. On average, the henchman/villain will be somewhere in the middle of the deck, potentially cutting in half the number of cards you need to encounter.
2. Hawkmoon covered it pretty well. Basically each card and power will tell you what it can do. Just remember to distinguish the difference when it says "a" or "your", as well as what location(s) it allows. And also remember that each player can't play more than one of each type of card.
3. You will always have a minimum of 1d4 on any check. Without a weapon, you can make a melee, or failing having the melee skill, a strength check. The lowest die any character has for strength is 1d4.
This also applies to skills you don't have. Let's say you encounter a bane that has a check to defeat of Divine 9. But you don't have the Divine skill. You can still roll 1d4.
4. In most cases, correct. Hawk touched upon some of the exceptions.
5. Again, Hawk covered this one.