Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
The answer, for people like me who want this kind of play, is to not have 99% of people speak Common. In my campaign, Common is the language of a continent-spanning empire that's falling apart. There are a lot of people who don't want to use it or teach it to their kids, for a variety of reasons. The further one gets from centers of Imperial power, the less of an expectation there is that people will know the language.There's no reason to learn another language. 99% of thinking peoples know common. If that's true why know 6 other languages in the oddly binary know/don't know if 5e?