I think that the very first kind of 'visual impacts' I got were from the art of the Fighting Fantasy books.  

But as far as RPG books, when I opened a D&D box set, the thing that probably made the most impact wasn't the art (having already gotten used to the FF art), but rather the non-standard dice.

I started playing AD&D at a Boy Scout campout in 1981 and was 12. I played without having a real good grasp of the rules, but whenever I could I tried to look at and read everything in the Three Books. I remember this pic in the DMG had me enraptured.



I wanted to be that guy on the horse shooting death rays from his finger.

I can't say that I got all that much use out of AD&D books back then because reading the rules only confused me a lot (it wasn't until I got BD&D that several of the rules in AD&D were understandable because I had a well written base with BD&D to spring off from).

I can say that I thought Classic Traveller, which I found a year later, was much easier to comprehend and thus easier to run and play. It didn't bother me that there weren't that many pictures, it was well written and the rules included examples of the design sequences and rules, so it was much more user friendly.

Jesus Christ, is it social hour at the old folks home again?

Yes. Here's your prune-tini.

Quote from: Piestrio;797253Jesus Christ, is it social hour at the old folks home again?

Depressingly, most of the books named are from later than I started playing.  And the party won't really get started until someone fires up Space Invaders.

The first rule books I looked at (Greyhawk and the first three books) didn't have that great an impact on me; it was the game itself.  And the explicit freedom to change it all to the way we wanted it to be.

Tunnels and Trolls. Bought from an art supplies shop in town, after I had played some Traveller with some kids in the 6th form. Followed about a year later by Basic D&D Red Book.

Then RuneQuest 2nd edition, the UK GW edition.