Recently, Facebook advertising was Distressingly Accurate and let me know that Oxfam had copies of the precise editions of the books that originally got me into roleplaying. Well, more accurately these were the first role-playing books that weren't a choose your own adventure book.
Advanced Fighting Fantasy basically took the Fighting Fantasy game mechanics, added a few bits to them, and allowed you to run games for other people rather than just going through a choose your own adventure book. My poor brother was subjected to a lot of this over the years.
Of particular note is Titan, the setting book. While the roleplaying rules and the monsters were all well and good, a whole book giving you the setting of a world was incredibly formative to me. The origin myth of gods making creatures out of clay stuck with me. One of the reasons I bounced off 3rd edition D&D when I was finally introduced to it many years ago was the lack of accessible lore about the world - and in turn the world lore was what caused me to latch so hard onto Eberron.
It's still very rare for me, in tabletop or LARP, to get enthused with playing a character just an archetype. I want to ground my characters in a world. They're always from somewhere, and care about their culture and traditions. The trend carries through today - all my current targets of enthusiasm; Empire LRP, Pathfinder's Golarion and Dolmenwood all have a strong sense of place.
Nostalgia can be a poison, but sometimes you can learn quite a bit from having a bit of a look back.
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