[DGAP]

One of the first programs my father wrote in the 70s/80s was a DnD dice rolling simulator, I believe in assembly. I've heard similar stories from others who began programming in that era. It's interesting how many "nerds" got their start in development through RPGs.

[pmiller2]

Makes sense. Why spend several minutes rolling dice and writing stuff down when you can have the computer do the dice rolling in under a second, and then print out a character sheet?

It makes even more sense for point buy systems, where you frequently want to run a lot of "what-if" scenarios, and getting the math right is tedious.

[jarcane]

A die rolling program is pretty much my equivalent to "Hello world" in any new programming language I learn.