What are the effects of giving major characters more than seven Aspects?

[Melendwyr]

I note that minor characters frequently have few Aspects.  Which isn't so surprising, really.  But the PCs always seem to have seven.

Did the designers experiment with greater or fewer Aspects?  I've been wondering because I've been looking over attempts to stat out Harry Dresden as a developed character, and I can't help but think that the character has more features than his Aspects represent.  Not merely that some changed - that is clear.  But seven doesn't quite seem enough.

What consequences would result from permitting more permanent Aspects than the default?

[Haru]

Earlier versions of Fate had characters with 10+ aspects. DFRPG cut that down to 7, the latest version, Fate Core, has reduced that to 5.

The main reason is that it is really hard to keep track of that many aspects. Imagine you are having 5 characters in the game, with 10 aspects per character, that's 50 aspects just for the player characters alone. Add some opposition, and you'll drown in them.

Another problem is that often you end up with redundant aspects, where you have two or more different aspects convey the same idea about the character. Less aspects will give you a clearer picture of the character.

[Sanctaphrax]

Nothing will break if you add more Aspects. It's just that you'll have more stuff to keep track of.

There was a discussion about this on RPGnet a while back, most people seem to think 5 is a good number. I like having 7, though.