Just what the question says: you could end up owning (and presumably having the wherewithal to publish, if you so desired) one existing RPG. Which would it be, and why? What would you do with it?

is " so I could totally ruin it" an acceptable answer?

I've got partial standing rights to two. Just lack the funds to do anything about it yet.

The Fantasy Trip.

I would organize the production of a boxed-set re-issue, with the core rules intact and unchanged but cleaned up and re-organized, a touch of modest changes here and there to smooth out things that arose in the last 40 years of play, and a shit ton of cool play maps, terrain and figure markers.

Star Smuggler

It was a solitaire space trading RPG from DwarfStar

Rules I'd probably go with Mythras. I love the game and if I was a big ticket publisher I'd be marketing the ass off of it.

Setting: The Sword of Shannara / Knight of the Word series and dual promote/release as a classic fantasy/urban modern fantasy games. Work on crossovers and media tie ins.

I would love to resurrect A/State. It's one of my all time favorite settings.

I would love to see it get another set of rules and a continuation of the campaign setting.

And adding some new stuff, and take what great material that already exists and 'tighten' it up and make it more congruous with the setting.

• Don't Rest Your Head
• Immortal: The Invisible War
• Fading Suns
• Paranoia
• Shadowrun
• Underground

...

Oh wait, you said one.

After the Bomb 2nd edition and related TMNT works. I would love to make them one magnum opus game. The best mutant animal creation rules anywhere. I lack the skill or funding to make a go of it though. I would want to balance things a bit better.

Quote from: Larsdangly;964610The Fantasy Trip.

I would organize the production of a boxed-set re-issue, with the core rules intact and unchanged but cleaned up and re-organized, a touch of modest changes here and there to smooth out things that arose in the last 40 years of play, and a shit ton of cool play maps, terrain and figure markers.

Stole my answer so I'll say 1977 Traveller. And what I would do is reissue it in the little black box with the same text and art and no changes to make the original version easily available again.

D&D, obviously, for purely financial reasons. Apart from that, I'd love to get my hands on the World of Darkness to do something different with it. I'm so tired of iffy mechanics and eco-terrorist werewolves. The end result would likely more resemble the New World of Darkness setting-wise but with rules that don't make me want to take a hammer to the book.

Tunnels & Trolls 5th ed. Nothing else comes close for me on this question. As to what I'd do with it - I'd reissue all the solos, and GM dungeons, commission some new ones, and write a ton of different settings powered by T&T.

I don't know, D&D of course but like most of them it exists in a place and time relative to its fan base.  It becomes very hard to please everyone.  The more I've run 5th edition the less I've liked it but I don't think it would make sense to replace it or redirect it at this point.

Rolemaster's been working on a revision that I lost faith in a long time ago but again, I'm not sure you could interfere with that without pissing off all the fans.  If I did it'd be a very slightly cleaned up RMSS from here on in.  You'd be surprised how much faster a handful of little changes could make it.

Traveller is Marc Miller so owning it doesn't really work for me.  Yes I know there are those who'd dispute it but maybe if it came with revitalized brothers Keith instead of Marc Miller as part of the package?

GURPS yeah, well, I'd love to own GURPS and direct its development.  Vehicle Design would be out right quick and Mr. Pulver would get the kind of cheque that would ensure it.  But I'm afraid I'd probably do a new edition and the guys who want this that or the other would be pretty angry.

No I'm better off owning and writing my own games I think.  Not having fans is kinda liberating

Amber Diceless. I would restructure the two rulebooks so that all of the powers, etc, were together. Maybe divide the rules into a player's book and a GM's book. Maybe put out a set of maps. Some Trumps. A bunch of stuff.

Own?  Completely?

MERP:  The reason it went out of print (and why Iron Crown has issued a "no points bulletin" on the subject of pirating) is that ownership is clouded.  AIUI, Iron Crown owns the copyright, so they can print it:  The Black Hats own the trademark, and can forbid IC from making any profit on production.

Own:  The copyright, the trademark, the patent, artwork, dedicated fonts, etc.

Get volunteers to proof read and OCR the entire series, then make it public domain.