What effect does an adventurer's appearance have on gameplay? I remember reading that hair color and facial structure are mostly cosmetic and just flesh out the character a bit, but I also remember reading that if a character has a "broad token" - or something along those lines - then a character could do things they otherwise could not; for instance one could wield a 2 handed sword in one hand.
So to be more specific how would being wiry, short, or muscular affect one's character in terms of gameplay? Would a shorter character be harder to hit, while a taller one would be easier to hit?
Height and broadness increase creature size, making creatures like dwarves able to wield weapons that'd normally too large for them, like great axes and two-handed swords. Well, should. There's a bug that prevents this in fortress.
Having large in your description offers the most strength oriented bonuses. It's particularly good in terms of establishing solid grips, that humanoids of lesser muscle and size cannot break. An average sized dwarf normally cannot ragdoll or latch an unbreakable grip onto a true night troll (not a troll spouse), but a large dwarf very often can.
Being large for your character's race can also be a random thing as opposed being a specific description detail. My current dwarf had broad and skinny as his starting description. Him being large for a dwarf was only something I discovered once the character creation process had ended and the adventure had begun.
In general I had avoided descriptions with "large" thinking that while this would aid strength, it might also nerf an already crappy dwarven agility. That's all supposition though.