And Scotsdragon, you have to remember that WotC's *other* product, MTG, does work exactly in that weird legalistic sense, so the spillover probably comes from there.
But Dungeons & Dragons is not and has never been a competitive card-game that has a simple one-versus-one assumption for fifteen minute length games. It is a collaborative roleplaying game.
The basic assumptions are thus radically different.
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Originally Posted by Max_Killjoy
A game setting does need to be designed to be fun and functional to game in.
But there's more to good worldbuilding than piling the "parts to game in" on a big pile.
Farmland isn't there to be adventured in, primarily, but one assumes it's still there and part of the landscape -- just because adventurers don't go there often doesn't mean it doesn't or shouldn't or needn't exist.