Just Got Your Story and I Have Some Questions

[Mr. Ghostbuster]

Hey there, I just got the Dresden Files RPG: Your Story for my birthday. I don't have prior RPG gaming experience and I was hoping someone could shed some light on a few questions I had after reading (or point me in the direction of further reading). In general most of it seems straight forward but there are some things I'm not clear on.

- Is there a limit or some kind of restriction to the number of aspects a character can have? I know you get five of them with the creation process through the background and guest stars but can you ad some to flesh out a character more. Do you have to earn more through gameplay or is it something thats up to the gamemaster?

-How exactly do your characters grow stronger and more experienced? Are they rewarded more powers/stunts/whatever after completing an adventure?

- Can anyone point me to a good resource for high concept examples?

[Tedronai]

Characters actually start with SEVEN aspects.  The five that you mentioned, gained from the background mini-stories, plus a High Concept aspect and a Trouble aspect representing the core of the character's identity and the thing that makes their life most interesting in the proverbial sense, respectively.

All other aspects that a character might gain during the course of play are generally temporary, placed by maneuvers/declarations/assessments, consequential contests, and Consequences generated by attacks.
Barring GM fiat (meaning that, regardless of what the rules might say, the GM can say otherwise up to the point where his players object enough that they all up and leave), characters do not gain any more permanent aspects than the 7 that they started with.

Characters grow stronger / more experienced when they reach Milestones.  Depending on the importance of the Milestone, this may allow them to simply switch around a few things on their sheet if they're not happy with them (or as representing a change in priorities/etc in the character's life), or it might give the character another skill point to spend (keeping the 'skill pyramid' in mind) as well as allowing them to move some things around, or it might do both of those as well as giving the character another point of Refresh to spend (or save).
More detail on Milestones can be found on page 88.

[sinker]

- Is there a limit or some kind of restriction to the number of aspects a character can have? I know you get five of them with the creation process through the background and guest stars but can you ass some to flesh out a character more. Do you have to earn more through gameplay or is it something thats up to the gamemaster?

As far as permanent aspects, you can only have the seven (High Concept, Trouble, Background, Rising Conflict, Story, and two Guest Stars), though those can be changed at any milestone. You can however have any number of temporary aspects. Those are the aspects that you create through maneuvers and declarations, as well as consequences. Also you can make use of any aspect that you are aware of. Those would be aspects on the scene, other characters, or even the city.

-How exactly do your characters grow stronger and more experienced? Are they rewarded more powers/stunts/whatever after completing an adventure?

I mentioned milestones above. Check out pages 88-91 in Your Story.

- Can anyone point me to a good resource for high concept examples?

We have our very own thread with aspect examples right here on the resources board. It can be kind of dry reading though. You could also check out the spare character concepts thread and the generic NPCs thread for other ideas.

And Tedronai gets there first. Oh well.

[UmbraLux]

- Is there a limit or some kind of restriction to the number of aspects a character can have? I know you get five of them with the creation process through the background and guest stars but can you ad some to flesh out a character more. Do you have to earn more through gameplay or is it something thats up to the gamemaster?

Characters generally have seven aspects as noted above.  They may pick up three more from injuries (some powers and stunts can raise this number) as consequences - these go away as they heal.  Even more ephemeral aspects may be created by your character or others as Declarations and Maneuvers - these tend to only last a few exchanges or a scene at most.  Your seven permanent aspects can be changed at milestones, though changing a high concept should be done gradually.

-How exactly do your characters grow stronger and more experienced? Are they rewarded more powers/stunts/whatever after completing an adventure?

Yep, as others noted you earn milestones which give you anything from an opportunity to change an aspect to skill points or even additional refresh.

- Can anyone point me to a good resource for high concept examples?

The links Sinker provided are useful.  I like using mythology as well - most can be tailored to fit Dresden.

[CottbusFiles]

As far as permanent aspects, you can only have the seven (High Concept, Trouble, Background, Rising Conflict, Story, and two Guest Stars), though those can be changed at any milestone. You can however have any number of temporary aspects. Those are the aspects that you create through maneuvers and declarations, as well as consequences. Also you can make use of any aspect that you are aware of. Those would be aspects on the scene, other characters, or even the city.

You could use Thaumaturgy to put an aspect on you that has a duration that is so long (years) that it becomes more or less permanent. Is this really usefull? Maybe, but you can do it.