Johnny Liu keeps his love for Dungeons & Dragons on the down low.

"I guess it's the stereotype of playing it - they are usually fat, sweaty, hairy dorky men who are socially inept who happen to live in their mom's basement," said Liu, 23, of Somerville. "It's not the stereotype. Vin Diesel played that game."

That's one way to look at the enduring phenomenon of Dungeons & Dragons, the iconic game that has come to symbolize both intellect and geekdom. But for some players - adults well into their careers and married with children - the game has cast an undeniably cool and timeless spell on them. Some of these warriors started playing when they were teenagers in the 1980s and can't stop.

In the confines of basements and living rooms in Greater Boston, these devoted players surface for a chance to role-play and quietly immerse themselves in the storytelling wonders of the 1970s-era game. Many of these wannabe dungeon masters, druids, and sorcerers are closeted D&D players who delight in morphing into their otherworldly characters but are more than a little embarrassed about it. They have plenty of company in fellow fanatics who are trying to shatter the stigma of their fellow brethren. At least three new books - including one titled "Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game" - illuminate this cultish phenomenon and attempt to explain why its followers are often a misunderstood lot.

Message boards on Facebook are filled with call-outs for fellow players who may not be conspicuous in their real-life roles as husbands and wives, parents, accountants, lawyers, and Web developers. Liu is a member of a Boston MeetUp group that introduces players to one another with gatherings at Pandemonium Books & Games in Cambridge.

Why do these adults remain so charged about a game they learned to play decades ago?

"I don't think you ever shake it," says Mark Barrowcliffe, author of "The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons, and Growing Up Strange," a new memoir that chronicles his adolescent journey in playing D&D in his native England. Barrowcliffe details how the game hooked him and his friends because it offered a social outlet and a sort of live theater. Barrowcliffe, 44, said he wrote the book to examine why he and millions of fellow dungeon masters worldwide can't let go of the game. "It's a story that you tell at the same time that you listen to. It releases a sort of creative impulse."

For the uninitiated, Dungeons & Dragons is a role playing game fueled by players' imaginations. It's part acting, storytelling, social interaction, war game, and dice-rolling. Players create characters who develop and grow with each adventure they embark on. One player is the dungeon master, who controls the monsters and enemies as well as narrates the action, referees the game, and maps out the adventures through tunnels and caves. The dungeon master and the other players take on the role of a character - such as a wizard, cleric, barbarian, knight, or archer - and follow them on journeys for hidden treasures.