Alignment

Alignment is a holdover from older additions, and I think its cool so it is therefore good.
Alignment of character's is malleable and may change over the course of a campaign, but below is my basic guidelines on definitions.

Chaotic Good	Neutral Good	Lawful Good
Chaotic Neutral	True Neutral	Lawful Neutral
Chaotic Evil	Neutral Evil	Lawful Evil

Good vs. Evil A Good character can be trusted to make the morally correct decision. An Evil character can be trusted to make the morally incorrect decision. A Neutral character can not be trusted to make either the morally correct or incorrect decision. Simple as.

Law vs. Chaos A character is typically the same alignment as the society in which they were raised. A Lawful character is one that prefers to have a system in place to make decisions. This may mean they follow the orders of a King, seeing his rule as law and his reign as a divine right. They may also believe power stems from the people and be a staunch defender of democracy, and wish for the will of the people to dictate the laws the societies abide by. Lawful societies are what may be commonly thought of as "civilized".
A Chaotic character is one that prefers not to be bound by immutable laws. Decisions made should be made based of the specifics of each given scenario and should not be bogged down by rules. Having a king to give you orders, but what happens when a dillweed reaches the throne and you have no means to remove him within your "laws". A similar argument could likely be made for an elected officials term length. Chaotic societies are typically ruled by either the strongest or wisest member of the society, and their rules can likely be challenged at anytime.
A Neutral character does not have such opinions. This might mean they see either side of the argument. This might mean they are simply uninterested in philosophy.