I hate the new advancement system they unveiled in Battlestar Galactica and in the core Cortex book.  I much prefer the Serenity RPG way of advancement — for skills, you need the number of advancement points for the die you are going up to, and I don’t allow the players to horde points to jump levels (say they horde 10APs in the hopes to buy a d6 in something straight to a d10.)  For attributes, it’s the die you’re going to x4.

However, I also like using die ratings for the traits and complications, as was introduced in BSG.  So the conundrum, how to buy traits and complications up or down respectively?  In the Serenity RPG, it’s 20AP to buy down from a major to a minor; 10AP to clear a minor.  Assuming that a minor is equal to a complication of d4, that means 2AP per die step to buy up a trait or buy down a complication.  (ex.  You want to take Friends in Low Places from d4 to d6…12AP; if you want to take some angermanagement courses for that Chip on Your Shoulder of d4, 8AP gets you to d2.)

Recap:  Skills: AP=dice shifted to, 2APxtrait die going to/ 2APxcomplication level you are at to die shift down, 4APxdie going to for attributes.