The Cantrip Nobody Reads Past
Cantrip is a 1st-level wizard spell in Dungeon Crawl Classics, and it lives or dies on the spell check result. Roll 1 to 11 and nothing happens. Roll 12 to 13 and you get one small utility trick: a candle lit, a page turned, a hem mended. This is where most players stop reading, having decided the spell is a parlor toy.
They stop one line early. A 14 to 17 produces three simultaneous minor effects, and 18 to 19 stretches duration past the trivial. Three effects at once is not a parlor trick. It is a way to change the state of a room before initiative resolves: kill the torches, foul a bowstring, unlatch a shutter, all off one check. The spell requires concentration, so the real constraint is environmental pressure, not some arbitrary round counter you invented.
The lesson is scope. Cantrip is not a damage line. It is a cheap tool for editing the encounter, and the higher rungs of the ladder are where that editing actually lands.
At the table: When a player rolls 15 on Cantrip and says “I light the lantern,” stop them and remind them they have three effects to spend, then let them douse two enemy torches and jam a latch.