For me I play the elf/dwarf/Orc thing straight, but in a new twist.

They're all humans, and not different species, so all the names are metaphors rather than actual names

The "elves" are militaristic yet rich and powerful, and the center of international culture. They originally came from the northern islands but came down when they founded colonies on the northern side of the island after industrialization.

They are taller (6'-7') deathly pale and generally like to stay thin, but the men and women are not always the most fit and they have naturally low metabolisms anyway, so they aren't entirely majestic like the fantasy books. (My main character comes from one of the aristocratic families.)

The "orcs" generally live in tiny communes of up to 150 — a lot of them live in the woods and rural areas, but are population wise mostly in the cities. They're strange in that even in the cities they tend to live in communes, effectively having hundred-people families and households which really mess up the taxes for those people. They lived on the continent before the current occupiers (about 2000 years) and their ancestors are sufficiently far enough that their culture evolved into the elves.

They generally are a little bit shorter (5'6"-6'6"), tanned (due to the fact that their homeland is generally in the tropics), and the men are more encouraged to be fatter — however the younger generations in the cities are starting to integrate and think sleek and elegant is nicer than the "traditional look". (My main character lives among them to avoid the police — the orcs generally are hostile to all outsiders outside of trade so the authorities don't bother.)

Dwarves on the other hand are completely foreign to the other people. They live on the other side of the mountains, having settled there before everyone else. As such, a lot of them have been separated for thousands of years due to the harsh climate of the mountains and have created lots of separate cultures, a lot of them mixing with the orcs.

They are so varied at this point it's impossible to paint them all in anything but broad terms but they generally are smaller due to the harsh climate (4'10"-5'5" but newer generations are 5'10"-6'8") and they are more focused on a solid build than being thin or fat. A lot of them also emphasize assimilation rather than retaining your cultural identity, so you'll rarely see a dwarf person proud of their ancestry (but they aren't ashamed of it either).

All three have mixed and live together in the cities, although in the rural areas the orcs are xenophobic, the elves are non-existent, and the dwarves rarely have contact.

Among all three people are the Immortals (at this point there are a lot of half-Immortals but there are mostly pures), and they tend to be evenly spread despite human population density. So in the villages you'll see one or two guarding the village with their strength and magic, along with another four or five doing random tasks around the place; but in the cities they are one in a thousand and tend to be really subdued about it as it brings unwanted attention to gang leaders and sleazy businessmen because of their "special powers".