The Elf

My Take on a Classic Race
White Box allows the player to make a character one of four races, human with three classes to choose from, dwarven fighter, hobbit fighter, or elven, which can be played alternately as a fighting man or magic user. This makes the elf a unique fellow from the start. This suits me fine because I tend to think of elves as the most complex and non-human of the PC races. Hobbits in White Box are pretty much straight out of Tolkien, even after they are relabeled halflings. Dwarves are the Tolkien variety with maybe a bit more of a martial feel (I tend to think of Tolkien dwarves as craftsmen first). The White Box elf could be a Tolkien elf, but seems to also be drawn from fairy tales and works of fiction by Poul Anderson, Alan Garner and others.
There are very brief descriptions of the potential PC races in Chainmail and White Box, but much is left unsaid. In the published settings of TSR and others, the various PC races have taken unique form peculiar to each setting. Elves may be immortal, live for thousands of years or just a few hundred. Halflings may have big hairy feet, or not. Additional PC races may be available, or not, depending on the setting. Like most referees, I have my own home brewed setting, Dreadmoor, which borrows from a number of sources and which I much prefer running games from.
The Dreadmoor elf is a somewhat alien being, completely a-moral and with no understanding of deities. They are their own "higher power" as the term is applied to supreme beings. They are closely tied to nature, with an understanding and appreciation for nature that vastly surpasses any other sentient race's understanding. This doesn't mean they are pacifists. Dreadmoor elves seem to follow the "law of the jungle"/survival of the fittest principle. Elves possesses a skill for manipulating nature which appears as magic to humans and other observers. Elves frequently sing to themselves when engaged in such craft. Money and wealth mean little to elves, but they do have an appreciation for things they find beautiful. Their idea of property is very different from human culture and can be a source of contention between races. (An elf is more likely to say "I belong to this land" rather than it belongs to me.)
In appearance the Dreadmoor elf is androgynous, fair of skin and hair (although exceptions do occur) with eyes of a metallic color. Females tend to wear diaphanous dresses and males jerkin and hose. Both sexes are extremely promiscuous by human standards and marriage seems to be reserved for royalty. Reproduction is rare and seems to occur only when the female wills it. Iron is a very uncommon ore among elves and they seem discomforted by its presence.
The elves of Dreadmoor live in a parallel (fey) world with frequent contact points allowing passage between their twilight world and the human world of day and night. Time passes differently in the two worlds and the twilight world is home to many creatures and beings not usually found in the human world, trolls and dragons being two examples. There are locations which seem to exist simultaneously in both worlds, they are called places of mystery. Many Dreadmoor adventures take place involving these places of mystery.
Playing a Dreadmoor elf can be challenging. Role-playing a human with a different personality from your own can also be challenging, but role-playing non-humans adds an extra dimension to the problems. I therefore encourage players to create human PCs, characterizing Dreadmoor as a humanocentric campaign setting. Half-elves exist and if a player insists on playing an elf, I encourage them to try a half-elf, especially if they are fairly new to Dreadmoor (and have not seen the way I run the elven NPCs). The PC of half elven blood, who has had no contact with elves, would be likely to act either like a human or like they think elves act (which can be quite amusing for all). Those players that have played the Dreadmoor elf have told me they enjoy the character because it doesn't feel like playing a human with pointy ears (or something similar). And yes, I let them go back and forth between fighting man and magic user.