Why does GW make dice like that?

[This Dave]

I see GW is coming out with Deathwatch themed dice. Which I will buy of course because Deathwatch has been my Marine army of choice for the last two editions of the game. But while they're always well made the themed dice GW makes always annoys me because of one thing: they put the symbol on in place of the one pip.

If I roll a bunch of army themed dice and see a large number of that symbol come up I would like to think that was an awesome roll. But with the symbol meaning one unless I'm making a Morale check seeing a lot of them just screams "Failure!". With the capital F. I've taken to using my old Imperial dice only with non-Imperial armies so seeing a lot of aquilas on a bad roll makes thematic sense. Am I as weird as I think I am in doing that?

Virtually every other dice company puts the symbols on the six pip side for this very reason. Why does GW always do different?

[Mr Mystery]

Who knows?

I just wish there was an accepted industry standard - as I too like me random themed dice.

Could be a weight balancing concern - If more of the die is removed for the pattern than for the 1 dot, you risk skewing results towards roles of a 6?

Either way, players need to police their own dice collection to help prevent opponent confusion.

[CoffeeGrunt]

This is something we joke about a lot locally. It's more annoying when you mix dice from other manufacturers, so you get excited seeing a load of symbols, then remember you're rolling GeeDubya dice.

[Kirsten]

I wish they did more casino style square corner dice personally, they aren't readily available anywhere in a decent variety.

[KhornishGameHen]

It is a little odd that they put the image on the 1 side... it is very anticlimactic seeing it then. It's like "Hey, I bought these cool dice with symbols on them to show how much I love my faction... except I never want to see those symbols when rolling because if so I'm losing..."

I'm sure there is a reason somewhere hidden in the machinations of GW, but as far as I can tell it seems arbitrary since other companies easily put the symbol on the 6 pip side.

[Defenestratus]

symbols in place of pips is annoying as allgetout.

Can never tell which one is which.

[This Dave]

Who knows?

I just wish there was an accepted industry standard - as I too like me random themed dice.

Could be a weight balancing concern - If more of the die is removed for the pattern than for the 1 dot, you risk skewing results towards roles of a 6?

Either way, players need to police their own dice collection to help prevent opponent confusion.

I confused myself with this once. Bought some of the Turn Signals on a Land Raider dice with "FREEM!" in place of the six. Used them in a game and kept getting a bunch of FREEM!s and was getting quite annoyed at my poor rolls. Until turn four when I realized that I had been rolling a bunch of sixes and had been cheating myself out of what was apparently a good game. D'oh!