Player Character Races and Languages in Whiterock

Castle Whiterock is an old D&D adventure, so the setting is built around allowing the "traditional" D&D races: Human, Dwarf, Elf (Wood and High), Gnome, Half-Elf, Halfling, and Half-Orc.  Dungeon Fantasy RPG supports all of those except High Elves.  GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 3 has High Elves, and the template looks fine for DFRPG, so I think we're set.

Which of these are recommended?  All of them are playable if you pick a profession that matches the race's strengths, though I think Gnomes are kind of overpriced and Half-Orcs can be difficult to play in town.  Because the Whiterock game will start at 150 points - 25 disads - 5 quirks, less than the normal DFRPG campaign, the costs will matter more.

Human: You don't have to spend any extra points.  You'll fit right in, since Cillamar is majority Human.  You won't have to spend any more time thinking about this.

Dwarf: You spend 20 points, but you get a lot of good stuff: HT +1, Lifting ST, Night Vision, Pickaxe Penchant, Poison Resistance, and Tough Skin.  If you want to hit things with an axe or mace or pick or crowbar and wear armor, not a bad choice.  The drawbacks are the -1 Move and the "wasted" points for FP +3 if you're not a caster.  Not quite a no-brainer for any role, but solid for a Fighter (any sort) or Cleric.  Greed is a pretty major disadvantage, but pretty much every adventuring party seems to have someone with it anyway, so it usually fits in.

Wood Elf: You spend 20 points, but you get DX+1 which is worth 20 points.  You get ST -1, boo.  You get Forest Guardian 2, which is +2 to Bow and some other good stuff.  You get Sense of Duty (Nature), which can be a huge disadvantage in some situations, but probably won't matter that much if you're in a dungeon rather than a wilderness.  Basically, if you want to play a Scout, this is a good choice: you're getting full value for Forest Guardian, so the Magery 0 and Appearance are almost free.  If you want to play an Scout who also casts Wizard spells, this is a great choice.

High Elf: Like the Wood Elf, but with IQ +1, which goes better with the Magery 0.  High Elves make very good Wizards.  They also make very good Bards.  If nobody plays a Bard, a High Elf Wizard's +3 to reactions from Appearance and Voice and high IQ for buying social skills might make them the de facto face of the party anyway.

Gnome: SM -1 is good; you are harder to hit.  (You will sometimes have to remind the GM of this, though.)  Widget-worker gets you +2 to Traps and Lockpicking, which is nice for a Thief, but 20 points and no primary attribute bonuses make this an expensive template.  The FP +3 is nice for a spellcaster.  There are some small places in dungeons and caves that small characters can squeeze into.  I like Gnomes, but I think playing one might be hard because they're not very optimized.

Half-Elf.  Meh, you pay 20 points to get DX+1, and trade a small reaction penalty for Magery 0.  If you're going to use the Magery 0, not bad.  Otherwise, only if you really want to play one.

Halfling: DX+1 and HT+1 on a zero-point template are awesome.  SM -2 is really nice; every time you get hit you get to look at the GM in disbelief and ask "Did you remember the -2?" and sometimes you'll find you didn't get hit after all.  Halfling Markmanship gets you +2 with most ranged weapons.  Yes, ST-3 is horrible, but you got 30 points of DX and HT for zero points, so you could dump those 30 points back into ST and be even.  I think the Halfling is competitive with the Wood Elf for a Scout.  The Move -1 isn't good, true, but that's only 5 points.  Fitting into small places can be useful in dungeons, hint.  Silence is good.  The only thing keeping Halflings from being perfect Scouts is that they can't see in the dark.  I hope someone plays a Halfling, since they're pretty good and I never see them played.

Half-Orc: HT +1 and a bunch of pretty good stuff (Night Vision, Rapid Healing, Resistant to Disease and Poison) in exchange for the annoying disadvantage that everyone in town hates you.  I never see anyone pick Half-Orcs.  If you do, it's not a bad template, but it's a roleplaying challenge.  Why are you hanging out with the other PCs?  Do you try to come into town with them and risk getting evicted, or do you camp outside?

On a related topic: In addition to the free Native language everyone already gets in DFRPG, I'm giving everyone another language at Accented for free, because I find Dwarves who don't speak Dwarven sad, as do their parents.  So I expect Elves and Dwarves and Gnomes and Halflings to have Native Elven or Dwarven or Gnome or Halfling, Accented Common.  (Accents are fun, but if you don't want an accent, you can buy up your Common to Native cheaply.)  Half-Elves and Half-Orcs probably speak one of their parent languages at Native and the other at Accented.  Humans speak Native Common and get a free language at Accented.

Here's The Language Table we're using, from D&D 3.5.  You can ignore the rules stuff on the left, but the table of languages on the right is helpful.

The obvious PC languages are Common, Elven, Dwarven, Gnome, Halfling, and Orc.  It's not out of the question for a starting PC to know Draconic (not because you're likely to have met a dragon, but because Kobolds and Lizardmen also speak it, and it's taught in Wizard School), Goblin, Gnoll, or Sylvan.  (Or Druidic, if you're a Druid, but I suspect nobody will play a Druid in a megadungeon game.)  The weirder languages might require Unusual Background or Fast-Talking the GM.  Languages are a good thing to coordinate among PCs; if everyone speaks Common (as they almost certainly should), it's probably good to have a diverse choice of other languages so the party can speak to as many beings as possible.