Cranium Dispute

[Rexmons]

First, I just want to say if you have not played the game you are missing out. For those of you who have played here is my question:
My team ended up getting a Sensosketch (Pictionary with your eyes closed) my word was "Unibrow" and this is what I drew:

The other team said my picture did not count because the arrow pointing to the unibrow is clearly a symbol and there's no symbols allowed. After some debate, we chose not to count the picture. The next round was a Club Cranium Sensosketch (same thing but both teams play simultaneously against each other). The word was "Vending Machine" and the other team got it first. When I asked to see the picture their teammate drew for them, this is what they handed me:

I challenged the card on the grounds that they also broke the rules by including the number 1 on the dollar bill. The other team firmly believed it was within the rules to do this because the number one did not constitute a letter or a symbol. The debate went on for over 10 minutes and became heated at times. If you are familiar with the game rules, I would be interested to hear your input on the subject.

[ZenGum]

I've only ever played regular pictionary ... but ...
the numeral "1" is absolutely a symbol. (I accepted immediate disqualification for foolishly using 666 to indicate evil )
An arrow is, maybe, perhaps, just barely a symbol. I'll consider this in a moment, but as a matter of precedent if an arrow is a symbol then "1" certainly is.

In general, what is a symbol? Just pulling this out of my ear, but: a symbol is a drawn shape (or similar) which by convention stands for, or represents, something else.
You're all welcome to pick over this definition.
But by this analysis, "1" is a symbol, because by convention it represents the amount one.
Is an arrow a symbol? does it by convention represent anything? I think yes, just barely. It represents an instruction, which may be paraphrased as "direct your attention to objects in the line indicated by the axis of this arrow, extended through the pointy end".

The key to this definition is the difference between representing by resemblance and representing by convention. Your sketch represents a face with a unibrow, because it resembles it. However it is not a symbol because the representation is based in resemblance.
The arrow represents an instruction, and it is a symbol because the representation is by agreed convention. I think this is right at the edge of what counts as a symbol, though. Imagine if you had simply circled the unibrow, or put a dozen little lines radiating out from it ... or simply drawn it extra heavily (as you did) ... it gets harder and harder to interpret these as convention-based symbols.
Maybe, and this is being rabbinically hair-splitting ... the arrow is a convention-based symbol if it is some distance away from the thing it is pointing at. If it is touching (as yours is) it is more like underlining, drawing heavily, or circling.

Take home message: 1 is definitely a symbol. Arrows are maybe just barely symbols. Your friends are poor sports and poor philosophers.

My brain hurts.

[Rexmons]

zen thank you for restoring my faith in humanity :-)

[ZenGum]

: dusts off hands :
My work here is done.
Come, Tonto, we are needed elsewhere!