One thing I do with some of my neutral characters to spice it up is to play them as two alignments simultaneously. It generally shifts the neutrality away from a common sense rational pragmatist to a deeply torn character.
For example, I had a warlock in 3.5 that acted chaotic evil toward any extraplanar entity, and chaotic good to any mortal race, and labelled my alignment chaotic neutral on the sheet.
No amount of blood could sate his need to avenge his demon-possessed brother and he set himself up as a crusader against extraplanar meddling. He was sharply critical of angels and good outsiders, citing them as ineffectual and cowardly, and fortunately for them he was never alone with one to act more forcefully without consequence. His end-game goal was to churn civil wars in hell so these beings would waste their resources slaughtering each other and leaving the mortals alone. To mortals though, he was generous and kind, willing to sacrifice of himself for their benefit and was close allies with the party's paladin, whom only had disagreements with him on the utility of lawfulness and obedience in society.
I've also had a "LG to clergy members only/LE to members of other faiths" cleric and a "NG to the living, NE to the dead necromancer" that were pretty fun.
I'm curious if others do this too. Share your stories of characters that act differently enough in specific situations to warrant calling it out as an alignment shift.
