ICv2 Interview: Kingswood Games Co-owners Woodrow Hood and Joshua King

Kingswood Games’ co-owners Woodrow Hood and Joshua King recently discussed their plans for the upcoming relaunch of Warlord CCG (Q1 of 2026) with ICv2. They also addressed some the challenges they’ve faced on path to getting this once popular TCG originally produced by Alderac Entertainment Group (see “‘Warlord“) to market in a timely fashion.

ICv2: Many fans remember this game from the early 00s and have fond memories of doing battle with AEG designers John Zinser, Dave Williams, and Todd Rowland in Medusan Lord Challenges at various conventions during that era. What made you two pull the trigger on reviving Warlord, Woodrow?  
Woodrow Hood: Like you, I started playing Warlord CCG in the early 00s. It ended its AEG run in 2008, but my friends and I kept on playing. We were still rolling D20’s long after Warlord was gone from retail shelves, revisiting the game’s original card pool to try new cards and connecting with other fans at conventions. I never got bored of the game. The random element of D20 dice rolls in a card game led to so much more replayability than other TCGs. 

Following years of participating in fan-run regional events, Josh and I were asked to join the player committee called the Guardians of the Storm and run the Warlord events at Gen Con in 2018. We started an online league at the onset of the pandemic, and the folks at AEG, including some of those names you mentioned, noticed that the community was quite active for a game that had spent over a decade on hiatus. 

AEG brought us in on a Warlord CCG 20th Anniversary Celebration Pack (see “AEG Revisits ‘Warlord CCG’“), and shortly after that, they toyed with the idea of publishing the game again with Josh and I as developers. That idea fell by the wayside, but all parties involved in the product agreed that it was time to bring Warlord out of its tomb through a licensing deal while D20 literacy, 5E popularity, and TCGs were all on the rise. 

How about you, Josh? What motivated you to revive Warlord?
Joshua King: I’ve never stopped loving Warlord, from my very first game till now. You’re right. I have so many memories of growing up in the tabletop world through Warlord; some of my oldest friends I met through Warlord. Like Woodrow said, we’ve been active in the fan community for years. My background is in business and finance, and starting a business has always been a dream of mine. When the opportunity presented itself for Woodrow and myself to team up and bring this dream project to life, I was ready.

You ran a Kickstarter campaign in the summer of 2024 for the game that raised close to $600,000, promising a release in October 2024. It is now the end of 2025. What challenges happened there and when is the game headed to the backers and retailers that preordered it via the campaign?
Hood: Things went almost exactly as expected at first. We did pretty well on the initial campaign, and retailers really showed up for us in the BackerKit phase of fundraising. We’d been networking for months with other TCG and board game publishers to get their input on distributors, freight fulfillers, manufacturers, and other companies that we knew we’d need to partner with. Most of the companies we worked with were very professional, communicative, and punctual. 

But the factory we chose for the first print run of the first set and the Kickstarter products, who came highly recommended from multiple trusted sources, raised some early red flags that we didn’t take seriously enough. This was our first time working with a manufacturer and there was a lot of money involved. We took that to mean that we needed to accept and troubleshoot whatever issues arose instead of abandoning the partnership with the manufacturer. 

For us, this was a lesson in being confident, looking out for yourself and your fans, and never settling for anything less. We didn’t have the guts to rip up our agreements and take our business elsewhere, but now that we’ve seen the damage and delays a factory can cause, we are much more careful almost to the point of paranoia when talking to factories.

King: I’d be the first to say we made plenty of mistakes, and the whole thing has definitely been a learning experience for us. One of our largest stumbling blocks in the beginning was underestimating the amount of time it would take to produce the graphics work, card templates, box art, etc. This led to a few delays on our side that could’ve been avoided had we planned better. As Woodrow said, we were probably too lenient with the factory we chose to print our first run. Communication lag and miscommunication often led to further delays. We’ve since learned our lesson about being clear with precise communication, QA checks, and triple-checking everything we do.

I’m assuming you are going to make some tweaks to production for future sets. What are they and what does your pipeline look like headed into 2026?
Hood: We began working with a new factory for future productions many months ago. We have multiple sets and some ancillary products planned with them, some of which are slated for 2026. The new factory has been incredible so far. The thing I’m really excited about for 2026 is the second Warlord set, the follow-up to Into the Accordlands. We won’t announce it until the release of the first set, but I think that’s where the game will really take off for a lot of people. The set is well designed, great to draft, offers lots of options for constructed formats, and is full of synergies that make deck-building fun. It’s hard to play constructed formats with just a single set of cards, even if it’s a larger set like the 350+ card Into the Accordlands.

King: I’ve been the primary factory contact with our new team, and I’m very happy to be communicating with them almost daily and getting solid advice/feedback from them as we go. We’ll be really pumped when we can announce some of the items lined up for 2026 other than the next standard set. Our development team and story team have been working hard on playability and themes for our second and third sets, as well as additional products; we’re ready to start teasing those as soon as Into the Accordlands releases. Like Woodrow said, it feels like things will really start to take off with the second set.

The TCG market is looking a little cluttered in 2026. There are a ton of TCGs out there; everything from the triumphant return of Overpower to Bo Jackson’s Battle Arena. Why should retailers consider stocking your game?
Hood: Warlord is great for stores with high fantasy TCG fans and/or stores that run D&D. Fantasy TCG fans who are tired of looking at modern digital art and random IP characters on cards will appreciate Warlord’s more traditional hand-drawn fantasy art. They will also enjoy the strategy involved in building decks as well as participating in casual gaming. D&D groups may consider getting into Warlord as a crossover TCG purchase, as the game’s engine is D20-based like 5E. Warlord really appeals to people who like to roll D20s and enjoy 5E combat. Its fast-paced game system offers players the chance to roll dozens of D20’s in a 5 to 15-minute match rather than only a handful of D20’s in an hour! 

King: Warlord is a natural choice for players looking for a new fantasy card game to adopt into their play communities. Warlord can be sold to players as a “D20 Combat Card Game.” The game also has some brand recognition from its run in the early 00s. Stores are currently signing up for Organized Play; many of our distributors remember playing the game during the original run and are happy the Warlord is coming back. 

Let’s talk about organized play a little. What does that look like for Warlord CCG in 2026?
King: Organized play for Warlord has always been a high point for the TCG line. The number one question we get is: “So, what about Overlords, Dragon Lords, and Medusan Lords?” 

Hood: Back in the 00s, AEG came out with a pretty epic OP system for Warlord, the Challenge System, and we plan to continue it. The Challenge System involved players playing through a tournament at their LGS and then, based on their ranking at the end of the tournament, they would get a chance to challenge an Overlord deck as sort of a final boss battle. If a player beat the Overlord deck, that player received a copy of the Overlord and its associated deck, which they could then redeem for higher level challenges at conventions. 

I don’t know that any info has been shared publicly yet, but the organized play kit for Into the Accordlands is great for weekly in-store events. It has four Overlord decks that include the first Overlord produced by our design team. Overlord challenges can be granted to the top players of the weekly events, just like the original Overlord challenges. The kit also comes with 6-card promo packs that each include one extended art version of one of the draft cards, an extended art card from the set that isn’t available in extended art elsewhere, and 4 stamped versions of a subset of cards from the set. There is also a quest board in the kit that lets players chase down additional packs or cash in a bunch of completed quests for an Overlord challenge they might not otherwise qualify for. 

King: If retailers are interested in being a part of Warlord organized play, please check out our web site for more details and with distributors to order our OP Kits. 

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now! Thanks to you both for your time.