Wise Turtle Publishing

Hello! I have just played my first session of OVA Revised and was awarded 2 experience points to use. We are using the heroic growth system (1 xp/level). I was wondering if I were to spend these points could I buy an ability at +2 with my 2 experience points? Or do I have to first buy the +1 with one experience point then buy the +2 after that with more 2 experience points? Just looking for a clarification.

I just took a look at pg. 116 of the book and you already answered your own question: 1 EP for each Level in a selected ability.

However, that's the default setting. If your GM dictated the Scaled Cost to your character creation, then that takes precedent. Or to be exact, take the Scaled Cost and multiply it by the growth rate and that'll be your XP cost per level of ability improvement.

As Sabersonic points out, there’s potential options the GM might apply to spending your points. But by default, it’s just 1 point per level (So +2 would be 2 points, not 3 points from buying +1 and +2).

The old edition of OVA (10 years ago) works more similarly to what you suggested, but I dropped it in favor of the current method. For one, it’s a lot simpler. For two, it actually didn’t make much sense to punish spending experience with extra costs when it’s such a core trope of so many stories. The game “type” (Heroic/Typical/Limited) was the replacement for slowing advancement, if the Game Master chooses.