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<blockquote data-quote="shadow" data-source="post: 3020947" data-attributes="member: 2182">I suppose that some people play a campaign setting where common is more of a diplomatic trade language.&nbsp; However, in every D&amp;D campaign setting that I've played in common acts as more of a universal default language that every sentient creature speaks. I've never played in a campaign where players had to hire interpreters or had communication hampered by the fact that NPCs speak common very poorly. (As I mentioned above, I've actually had a player comment that speak language is a useless skill because of the common tongue.)As someone who has travelled outside the US, I have been in a number of situations where the language barrier has been an issue.&nbsp; It's true that in most hotels and tourist areas in major cities there will be someone who speaks English, but once you leave the tourist areas it really helps to know at least some of the local language.&nbsp; Even the street vendors who frequent tourist areas only &quot;speak&quot; enough English to communicate the prices of their wares (if even that much.)&nbsp; Ironically, when working in Japan, a country where English is taught extensively in high school and middle school, I found that very few people could speak English enough for any serious communication. (Note that my travels have taken me to Asia, so I can't comment on the linguistic situation in Western Europe.)This is from the 3e Forgotten Realms Setting.&nbsp; It seems that in order to make the Realms more consistant and &quot;realistic&quot; the role of the common tongue was revised.&nbsp; In 2e, common was simply the default universal language.Anyway, it seems that a lot of people have assumed that common is some type of diplomatic trade language spoken by the elite.&nbsp; If that is the assumption, then I suppose that you could make the case that English acts as sort of common in the real world.&nbsp; However, I have always assumed that common was sort of a universal language designed to sidestep any linguistic issues that could arise (that's the way it's been in every game that I've ever played in).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="shadow, post: 3020947, member: 2182"] I suppose that some people play a campaign setting where common is more of a diplomatic trade language. However, in every D&D campaign setting that I've played in common acts as more of a universal default language that every sentient creature speaks. I've never played in a campaign where players had to hire interpreters or had communication hampered by the fact that NPCs speak common very poorly. (As I mentioned above, I've actually had a player comment that speak language is a useless skill because of the common tongue.) As someone who has travelled outside the US, I have been in a number of situations where the language barrier has been an issue. It's true that in most hotels and tourist areas in major cities there will be someone who speaks English, but once you leave the tourist areas it really helps to know at least some of the local language. Even the street vendors who frequent tourist areas only "speak" enough English to communicate the prices of their wares (if even that much.) Ironically, when working in Japan, a country where English is taught extensively in high school and middle school, I found that very few people could speak English enough for any serious communication. (Note that my travels have taken me to Asia, so I can't comment on the linguistic situation in Western Europe.) This is from the 3e Forgotten Realms Setting. It seems that in order to make the Realms more consistant and "realistic" the role of the common tongue was revised. In 2e, common was simply the default universal language. Anyway, it seems that a lot of people have assumed that common is some type of diplomatic trade language spoken by the elite. If that is the assumption, then I suppose that you could make the case that English acts as sort of common in the real world. However, I have always assumed that common was sort of a universal language designed to sidestep any linguistic issues that could arise (that's the way it's been in every game that I've ever played in). [/QUOTE]

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