My Pet Peeve: Dice with Alternative Symbols

When it comes to gaming I use a box of dice that I bought from Games Workshop as a teenager in about 2001. I’ve added a few to the collection over time in the form of scatter dice, a few smaller dice for wound markers, and so on. But the core of my dice collection are the classic GW red and black dice. They are simple, having 1-6 pips, and are very easy to see on the tabletop at a glance. This is not only useful for me, but I think is an important courtesy to my opponent who also needs to see what I have rolled.  

Something that bothers me then is when my opponent brings custom dice where either the 1 or the 6 is replaced with a picture or writing.  This immediately makes it harder for me to see what they are rolling as the calculation is no longer instinctive. This is especially the case where a pile of 10+ dice are being thrown. Moreover, while most of the time it is the 6 that is replaced, sometimes it is the 1. What is even worse is when they mix and match custom and non-custom dice together in the same roll. I find that having to spend time working out dice roll outcomes because of hard to read dice, even if it only takes an extra couple of seconds, breaks up the flow of the game and makes it less enjoyable.

Getting frustrated at custom dice may seem like an odd pet peeve, even somewhat cranky. However, in my personal opinion rolling your dice in a way that the outcome is clearly and unambiguously obvious to your opponent is basic tabletop etiquette.

Rant over.