Robert J Kuntz 3rd Column Post at EN World

Here is a link to Gary’s Immersion in Castle El Raja Key: The Four-Way Footsteps wherein he discusses what he (Rob) and Gary learned about immersion from Dave Arneson and then gives an example of how you do it.

(Very early 1973, 1st level of my Castle El Raja Key) -- In November of 1972 four stalwarts of the LGTSA (Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association; of which I was then its current president)--namely Gary Gygax, myself, Ernie Gygax and my brother Terry Kuntz--experienced our first, and also comprehensive, RPG adventure via Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor setting. During it we also experienced the various levels of DM interactive strategies that Arneson could and did wield.

Rob mentions Alfred Hitchcock:

Both Gary and I were big Alfred Hitchcock fans and Hitchcock was the master of suspense and, due to that, of anxiety.

I watched a ton of Hitchcock movies growing up and they have always influenced how I ran my games from day one. I also am a big Edgar Allan Poe fan. I discovered Poe about 5th grade and a few of my favorites are:

The Cask of Amontillado
A Descent Into The Maelstrom
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Gold Bug
The Masque of the Red Death
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Premature Burial
The Tell-Tale Heart

You can read these and more at PoeStories.com.