Thoughts on my Fantasy Equipment Grid?

I'm trying to make a grid of weapons and armor for a fantasy role playing game.

The basic idea is that the player can level up proficiencies on the grid for type in columns and rows, but also the individual blocks.

So if you use a dagger you will increase levels in the Hand Weapons row, the gouge column, and the dagger block.

Which in turn means that if you use a stiletto afterward you start with some skill because it is also a hand item.

Or if you move onto a short sword you'd benefit from learning gouging weapons.

The columns and rows are an average of every other block on it.

The idea I'm going for is encouraging the player to use a wide variety of weapons to get the full potential of any weapon.

Here is the charts I currently have:



I'm not set on any of these items, so let me know if you think the list needs some changes.

Opinions?

EDIT: Also, I should mention that of all the blocks I'm most uncertain if throwing stars belongs in the TEAR column.

And if it's not immediately clear:
Slash causes bleed and scales with agility
Chop causes less bleed and scales with strength
Bash causes stagger and scales with strength
Tear destroys armor and scales with strength
Pierce ignores armor and scales with agility
Gouge ignores some armor, causes bleed, and scales with agility and strength
Bow attack speed and damage scales with agility
Crossbow attack speed scales with strength, but is extremely slow to reload
Gunpowder attack speed scales with agility, but is extremely slow to reload

EDIT 2: Also, looking at it now, I’m thinking bows, crossbows, and guns should probably be on a completely different chart. It doesn’t make a lot of sense that getting better at shooting a short bow would make you better at hammers.

But I think thrown weapons SHOULD stay on there because I can see getting good at throwing daggers WOULD make you better and regular daggers.

EDIT 3: It also occurred to me that I need another stat for “weapon mastery” that is the average of ALL the blocks that adds to the over all proficiency so that the player can’t get max stats without maxing out ALL the blocks.

So the final tally would be the weapon block + the column average + the row average + the average of all the blocks divided by 4.

which means that for a dagger:
25% of the proficiency would be the dagger block, 25% would be the gouge column, 25% would be the hand held weapons row, and 25% would be the over all average of all the blocks.

EDIT 4: I’m also thinking, what if instead of averages for the rows, columns, and weapon mastery they instead get bonus experience when they level so that the total of the bonuses will cap it, but it still levels without it so that I’m not forcing the player to max out every level of every block.

Because everyone loves bonuses, rather than requirements.

But all the while they are still getting rewarded for experimenting.

EDIT 5 (okay, I know I’m just rubber ducking now): What if... What if proficiencies didn’t just mean using the weapon better but also meant less damage from enemies using them?

AND!!!

And it accounted for your smithing skill towards them!!!

 

If we're discussing it purely on the idea, then yeah I like it. However, I get the feeling that the game will be more than just an equipment system. If this complex system is only a small part of a bigger game, then I can only imagine what a huge undertaking it would be to create the whole game.

Regarding the list:
I think it's quite good, however a question that comes to my mind is: Why is it only possible to throw some weapons? (If I can throw an axe, why can't I throw a hammer?)
Also, why is trident set as pierce but spear isn't?

However, I'm not an expert on weapons, so perhaps there is a logical reason behind it that I haven't found yet.

 

Totally on board with the idea, thought it many times, if I can swing something sharp I should have at least some skill swinging something blunt... And anything that hooks a player in to the stats is really good.

Just my opinion but the grid is a good way to visualize what you want but not great for implementating, it forces weapons to be added in one specific way only. If you just had a list of skills associated with a weapon and they were the ones that were both needed for proficiency and also got levelled up, then that would allow you to add a lot more customisation with the crossover of skills.

A sword could be a heavy weapon, sharp and obviously a sword,
An axe could be a heavy, sharp and an axe.
2/3 skills match so would 2/3 of the proficiency, etcetera etcetera...

 

Well, throwing weapons isn’t necessary off the table, but that would fall under an ability separate from the chart.

That said, the bottom row is a list of weapons explicitly for throwing.

The current idea I have for it is that they are a limited number of uses that fill back up at every save point.

Oh, and I went around with the trident and spear.

I initially made spear a piercing weapon, but then what do you call a sword at the end of a stick?

most spears have blades as well as a tip, so that would be gouge (pierce and cut).

And this is the only way I can think of to put in a trident, which is usually overlooked in most games.

 

Your idea of having limited number uses for the throwable weapons, seems very interesting. I think that if implemented correctly it could create a good balance between making the player want to use the throwable weapons and keeping them. Usually when I play games that have items with limited uses that are not rechargable, I tend to save the items for as long as possible, which sort of removes the fun element of using the items.

This seems like a reasonable explanation and like you said, tridents aren't used that often in video games. It will be interesting to see what your take on it will be.