When a character first encounters a machine (whether they created it, found it, or had it bound to them as part of a curse), the machine's willpower may resist the character entirely.
In order to break the machine's will such that the character can make use of the machine, the character must align to the machine's virtues. A machine's willpower is represented by 1-3 virtues. A character in possession of a machine is considered aligned to that machine (and thus able to benefit from the machine's effects) if their corresponding virtues match; if even one such virtue does not match, they are not aligned, and the machine will not engage for the character.
When constructing any machine, after determining its willpower, randomly select a virtue for each willpower it has: motivation, temperament, and adaptability (note that you cannot select the same virtue twice; a machine will only ever have 1-3 willpower - if a machine has 3 willpower, it has all 3 virtues). For each selected virtue, randomly select one of the two possible values to determine the machine's alignment.
Note that bindings do not use the alignment mechanic.
Machines are jealous entities, and they do not wish to share their owners with others. Each machine has a jealousy attribute, as defined in their individual entries. A character may possess and dominate as many machines as they desire, but they may only gain the benefits from a few at a time. A character that benefits from a machine can benefit from no more machines than that machine's jealousy (or, put another way, the lowest jealousy attribute amongst machines that a character uses simultaneously determines the maximum number of machines that character may use).
Note that bindings do not use the jealousy mechanic.
Each machine has a personality. Randomly select one below (or the narrator may assign one based on the thread that was used to construct the machine). Personalities do not impact mechanical gameplay - they are for storytelling purposes only.