I bought the game a while ago and I have the high res / texture patches installed. As I've been reading around online looking for information on builds, characters and so on, I've noticed that you're meant to be able to play as gnomes, halflings, half-trolls and the like. Yet in my current install I only have humans, elves, half-elves and half-orcs.

Did I miss a patch or a mod, or is my install just duff? Any information would be appreciated.

You should be able to play as a human, elf, half-elf, dwarf, gnome, half-orc or half-ogre. Only the medium sized races (human, elf, half-elf and half-orc) are available as female. Anything else is just a glitch. As to how that glitch may have happened, I haven't a clue.

Is your character, perchance, female? :) Dwarves, gnomes, halflings and half-ogres (not half-trolls) are available to play as males only.

My character is indeed female. I had no idea the races were gender locked. Thank you for the update.

There are some cultural justifications given for this in the manual, explaining (for example) that due to gnomish and dwarven society their women never leave their native homes, but I think in reality it was just that the developers never made female models for the large and small races. I think they wanted to but weren't able to get it done for release.

It's a shame, because Arcanum is one of the few RPGs I've played where the player character's gender actually matters to those they meet.