# Thursday, October 05, 2023 ## What do I write in my dev blog? #gamedesign During the early days of my game designing for my ttrpg someone told me to make a dev blog for people to follow. I get the reason why; people can learn about what I am doing, making a portfolio of my work, organize my thoughts and promote my future product even before it's out on the shelf etc. I guess in that sense I am more of a tinkerer than a salesman because I don't feel a lot of incentive for doing it. I have, however, been writing whatever comes to my mind on a notebook and my Obsidian to keep track of what I am doing. I even dredged through my old old notes from early 2010s to get some more inspiration on the design itself. in the meantime I can't focus on my own game design all the time so I play around with the game design on dnd 5e by writing about [[Why Maneuver should be Core Mechanic for Fighter in Dungeons and Dragons 5e]] or [[Relationship Charts]] to enrich or change the existing game to my envision. Currently I am making a rules light version of the Expedition; [[The Expedition - Rules Lite Version 0.02]] One of the ideas I have is to using some of the idea I had back in the 2010s of using playing cards for players to draw set of skills/perks during character creation and the group creates characters together. ## Bastions and Cantrips: [link](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/ua/bastions-and-cantrips) ### Bastion I am not going to delve into the Bastion element because it's a lighter version of Stronghold and Followers and Garrison from World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor. I think there are so many other publication that deals with HQ for players I wasn't too impressed with the design itself. The system is designed to a point where it could be played on its own outside of dnd itself. I am curious to know how many GMs actually track time to a point where it's broken down by 7days per turn system. ### Cantrips I can see dnd 5e is going towards even more heroic design, which I would dub ultra super heroic fantasy (, where it's like Dragon Ball Z like power inflation every new book they publish and this edition puts another level to the USHF. on such example is Blade Ward (click the chat bubble on the side for info). > [!aside|show-title]- ###### Blade Ward > > Abjuration Cantrip (Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, > Wizard) > > Casting Time: Reaction, which you take in > response to a visible creature targeting you > with a melee attack > > Range: Self > > Components: V, S > > Duration: Instantaneous > > You trace a sigil of warding, imposing > Disadvantage on the creature’s attack roll > against you. This effectively replace the shield, which is +5 to AC with the same set up and this is far more superior than just adding +5 to AC at a cost of a spell slot. Shocking Grasp has a minor but major change it is flavor text; they removed the following text: > You have advantage on the attack roll if the target is wearing armor made of metal. I really liked this idea of having advantage against armored unit but now this is removed, I think the old shocking grasp is the core idea they should have stuck with instead of making everything a different colored damage spell. Here are the two things I like about what Shocking Grasp does: - Removes Attack of Opportunity when struck - Has advantage against armored unit wearing metal. I am guessing why this is put in for VTT, it is neigh impossible to set this setting for computer to identify whether the gear they are wearing is a metal or ironwood, which is hardly ever used in 5e at all because there's no incentive to have it in the first place. So here's my alternative suggestion of each of the Cantrips they can modify; - Acid Splash lowers the target's AC by 1 per 5 caster level instead of dealing more damage. - Keep the old shocking grasp - True Strike is automatic hit but cannot crit. (this is divination not evocation and has no reason to change the damage type to radiance) - Spare the Dying [Bonus, 15ft]. stabilize a creature, if used as a Standard Action, they are instead at 1 HP. - Produce Flame. Deals 1d6 and sets target on fire for dealing 1d4 fire damage at the start of the creature's turn and can be doused by spending an action. the damage die increase by 1 at level 5 11 and 17. - Poison Spray. convert it to 15ft cone with a Con Save with 1d8 poison damage and target is poisoned for 1 turn. Of course these are rapid fire of my thoughts on what cantrips, perhaps spells should do, control the field of combat. Cantrips have very limited use and where most people use one with the most amount of damage (Eldritch Blast, Fire Bolt or Toll the Dead). I think they should alter different condition to tilt the scale of combat towards the party's favor. I am a big fan of giving players options in a situation and throwing situations at the player where dealing normal damage is not the only way of achieving victory.