Always the same..meh.

[Pteryx]

For my own part, I find that elves vary enough, but don't get much consideration about how the elven condition would change the culture.  It seems to me, for instance, as though elves wouldn't cram their children into schoolhouses like sardines to frantically shovel as many facts into their heads as they possibly could before their children grow up; instead, I figure that elves allow their children to direct their own educations at their own pace like in the "unschooling" movement.  Cramming for tests would be a foreign concept to an elf.  And that's just the tip of the iceberg...

As for dwarves... well, there's a reason the trope for them got called Our Dwarves Are All The Same.  I have to wonder just what it is about the dwarf than makes them repeat this way...  -- Pteryx

[Vinom]

Dwarves... Look its very hard to make a little stout angry dude cool (without resorting to adamantium)
I considered making them a race of Rituallistically tatooed bald pygmies barb's and fighters, and clerics... except... well aren't there real pygmies who live exactly that? Plus I think that just makes them gnomes.
Maybe everyones out of idea's to fight against the base perceptions with.

I think frank and k had the best universal interpretation though....

If you don't like the ideas of steampunk dwarves, irish/scottish/viking dwarves... Have you cosidered dwarves as desert nomads?

 steampunk dwarves, irish/scottish/viking dwarves... isn't that very very similar to the standard dwarf?

Desert nomads... Hmph...
maybe your on to something there...

Yes, thats why I listed them in the catagory of ideas you've regected...

Remember, earth elemental + air elemental =Sandstorm elemental.

Ahh I see... whats this about elementals though? I dont' follow...

Sorry, inside joke, in a recorded beta of 3.5, a character playing a dwizard (dwarf wizard) said his life goal was to fine out how to breed two elementals, which led to many jokes about Sandstorm elementals, fire elementals with 'short wicks'

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Perhaps cannibalistic zergling elves who overrun twenty-person human settlements in hordes of several hundred, killing the inhabitants and eating their corpses are more your taste?

Remember, elves don't have allies, they just have field rations.

[veekie]

For halflings, they'd make excellent assassins and nomads, halfling nomadic sky pirates.

[Caelic]

For halflings, they'd make excellent assassins and nomads, halfling nomadic sky pirates.

My current campaign is an alternate Earth, circa 1670.  Halflings hail from Ireland and Scotland (where they form the basis of the "wee folk" legends.)  They're extremely sought-after as crew members for ships, because they're small and agile and make natural rigging-monkeys.

[X-Codes]

For halflings, they'd make excellent assassins and nomads, halfling nomadic sky pirates.

My current campaign is an alternate Earth, circa 1670.  Halflings hail from Ireland and Scotland (where they form the basis of the "wee folk" legends.)  They're extremely sought-after as crew members for ships, because they're small and agile and make natural rigging-monkeys.

...and what about the Menehune?

[Soda]

They're extremely sought-after as crew members for ships, because they're small and agile and make natural rigging-monkeys.

Very nice, I never considered that angle.

My favorite is the halfling black market.

[Midnight_v]

For halflings, they'd make excellent assassins and nomads, halfling nomadic sky pirates.

My current campaign is an alternate Earth, circa 1670.  Halflings hail from Ireland and Scotland (where they form the basis of the "wee folk" legends.)  They're extremely sought-after as crew members for ships, because they're small and agile and make natural rigging-monkeys.

...and what about the Menehune?

Wow... menehune I haven't heard someone say that since... since... Kailua town. . .
Throwed.

[Caelic]

...and what about the Menehune?

Should the party ever make it to that part of the Pacific, they'll find that they're genuine Fae, akin to brownies--but considerably less welcoming to outsiders.

[Midnight_v]

...and what about the Menehune?

Should the party ever make it to that part of the Pacific, they'll find that they're genuine Fae, akin to brownies--but considerably less welcoming to outsiders.

Have you been to the islands brah? The menehune are everywhere maaaaann....

[veekie]

For halflings, they'd make excellent assassins and nomads, halfling nomadic sky pirates.

My current campaign is an alternate Earth, circa 1670.  Halflings hail from Ireland and Scotland (where they form the basis of the "wee folk" legends.)  They're extremely sought-after as crew members for ships, because they're small and agile and make natural rigging-monkeys.

Don't forget they take less food as well as weigh less, a major concern for shipping and such travel where cargo capacity is a concern. A human sized ship crewed mostly by halflings would be able to remain out to sea eight times longer than the same crewed by humans. Of course, reduced strength may be an issue if you're using a rudder or powered by rowing, but once sails are in primary use and simple mechanisms are available to multiply the effort...

You could add a couple of half orcs as crew to make up for the lack in strength.

[Caelic]

Have you been to the islands brah? The menehune are everywhere maaaaann....

The fact that they're everywhere isn't necessarily a good thing--especially if you're an explorer-slash-pirate bent on plundering the locals.

[X-Codes]

I want a show of hands, how many people had to look up Menehune on Wikipedia? 

Anyway, I guess that's a fair description of what they are.

[Midnight_v]

Have you been to the islands brah? The menehune are everywhere maaaaann....

The fact that they're everywhere isn't necessarily a good thing--especially if you're an explorer-slash-pirate bent on plundering the locals.

No no... they are the island brownies. Honestly, when someone first talked to me about the legends of the islands i was actually kinda puzzled how similar those things sounded to other "fey" in the traditional sense creatures.
I wonder about myth migration or maybe there's some validity to these stories... I rember they found a "hobbit" skeleton a few months back somewhere.

[NecroticBanana]

In my lil homebrew, i try and not change the main races too much, but the more obscure races i mix up a bit. But there are no living gnomes anymore, all thats left is a small island of living constructs known as mechagnomes (still hammering out the stats).
havn't really messed with the elves, but i've never suggested that they were tre huggin aloof types, nor do they live in tree villages, those are for ewoks. They have a unique architecture style all there own, and incorporate some naturally occuring features into there cities.
I have no underdark (being the world is mostly flat) so instead my drow are more tribal and resemble the ancient Zulu nation (and NO not because there dark skinned, its because the zulu warriors are really fucking intimidating lol)
everything else is kinda as is (or just havnt had the need to flesh em out enuf yet) But very few of the more "primitive" races such as giants and trolls are so primitive, tho most of the golbinoid races have been incorporatied under a single bloody warbanner, a major high level threat.

[Caelic]

Heck, let's ask a simple question: WHY are the elves stereotypically never the race to develop advanced technology, given their ridiculously-long lifespans?  I mean, yes, magic, yes, tree-hugging, fine and dandy--but one of the main things that slows down technological progress is the need to constantly train new experts in the basics.  A human engineer loses a good chunk of his most creative time mastering the fundamentals of his craft.  Not so for an elf; learn the basics, and then have hundreds or thousands of years to push the envelope.

[veekie]

Must be the hippyness, though I'd have thought they'd have been crazy good at biotech with their affinity for nature and magic.

Leave the metal pounding and steamworks(both which traditionally aren't considered very environmentally friendly in fantasy) to the dwarves, who live almost as long.

[Generic_PC]

I have how elves, somehow always get to be openly racist to anyone not an elf, and yet somehow, excepting drow and spinoffs of, are Chaotic Good. Always.

In a game i played recently, Dwarves were the main race, and all elves were aquatic or dead. Apparently, an ancient war had wiped them out, serves them right. Humans were an extremely rare race, and everyone rolled for which race they would play. It was pretty good, actually. If i recall correctly, 1-35 was dwarf, 36-45 was Halfling, 46-55 was Gnome, and then the ratios just got smaller. Human was something like 63-70.

[dither]

I think elves usually come off as aloof, 'cause they may or may not be based on Shakespeare's portrayal of Oberon and Titania in Midsummer Night's Dream. I could easily be wrong, but that's how I've always envisioned them.

I tend to use elves in exactly that fashion but I also tend to keep them in the forests, where they belong. I also tend to treat them more like Zen masters rather than just pointy-eared punks. I also tend to have their creature type simply be 'fey' instead of 'humanoid.'

Oh, and they want our women. 

[Generic_PC]

They can have our women, but they might lose a couple Nymphs.