Machines of Bone & Blood turns D&D into necroindustrial horror

Skeletal factories, undead labor, and necromancer barons put Machines of Bone & Blood squarely on the wrong side of standard swords-and-sorcery, and that is exactly the point. Somanyrobots Games launched the project on June 9 as a 5E-compatible detour into necroindustrial horror, where the industrial revolution becomes a story about labor, class, and bodies being consumed by machines.

The book’s pitch is unusually specific. Its worldbuilding draws from 1810s England and the Luddite era, then swaps steam power for necromancy and plants the action in the Ivory Empire, where mortal workers are losing their livelihoods and may be pushed into brutal labor for necromancer barons. The crown sits in the middle of that conflict, deciding which side to support, while the dead become part of the machinery instead of the thing being fought.

The scope is even bigger than the setting. Somanyrobots said the finished book will run over 300 pages and include the Ivory Empire setting, two mini-settings, two new classes, Necromancer and Abomination, 20-plus new subclasses, 5-plus new species, 100-plus forbidden spells, 50-plus magic items, and 40-plus monsters. The campaign also promises gothic adventures across a range of levels, a new necrografting mechanic, digital and print battlemaps, and a hardcover with PDFs included, along with VTT modules, GM screens, spell cards, and magic item cards.

Compatibility is part of the appeal. The project is being written for 5th edition and D&D 2024 compatibility, with additional usability for Tales of the Valiant and other 5E-adjacent systems. Somanyrobots also made its anti-AI stance explicit, folding that choice into the project’s identity as much as its mechanics. For backers in the first 48 hours, the campaign opened special poll access to help choose one subclass each for the Necromancer and Abomination.

The numbers suggest the concept is finding its audience fast. BackerKit listed the campaign at $44,019 pledged against a $15,000 goal, with 500 backers and 293 percent funded, while the prelaunch page showed 72 backed projects and 492 followers. That momentum follows Songs of the Spellbound Sea, Somanyrobots’ earlier 336-page 5E supplement, which raised $84,855 on a $15,000 goal and established the studio as a Seattle-based company with a growing lane in big, class-heavy D&D content.

Machines of Bone & Blood works because it does not just add more options to the shelf. It turns the grimy machinery of the industrial age into a campaign engine, then asks what kind of table wants to play through the smoke.