I think I just found a group that I am more in sync with. The group I write about here are all DMs, 3 out of seven are moderates and play the RPGA mods just to get a chance to play once in a while. The other 4 players are hardcore; I think a couple of them play 8days week, I am not sure, but I believe they found a way to power game time itself… They are all decent people just some days the power gaming takes away from the fun of playing the game.

Everone gets something different out of the game, and for some people it is the mental exercise of trying to optimize their characters within the limits of the rules. There’s nothing wrong with this, it’s a fairly natural reaction to having rules in the first place. When most people are given a set of rules, they immediately try to think about how to do what they want to do (which might just be killing things) as effectively as possible within the constraints of those rules. Adding an additional constraint to the game, such as “requiring” each of them to have a weakness, is really just changing the rules.

That being said, if you’ve got “power-games”, there are two problems. The first is a way to accomodate players with different styles at the same table. A good DM writing their own material can usually manage this as long as the players aren’t polar opposites (which it doesn’t sound like they are in this case). For example, the DM could generally direct high-crit attacks towards the players who are expecting them (opportunity attacks aside). He could direct other types of challenges at players who enjoy more RP and less mechanics.

The second problem is how to challenge players who build very mechanically strong characters. This is really fairly easy if you’re a DM writing your own material, you just make harder monsters for combat encounters, and also add encounters that stress non-combat weaknesses of the characters (“The thief flees across the scorching dessert. What? you follow him in your plate armor?, a trickle of sweat drips down your brow”).

However, wishing aside, the fact is that (in my opinion) D&D is not a good system for people who enjoy the RP aspects more than the mechanical ones (I think what you’re really looking for is something like the disadvantage systems in RPGs like L5R or White Wolf, which make it mechanically rewarding to play a character with flaws). The RPGA modules compound that problem in that they shove the DM into a box that’s geared only toward certain types of gamers. Modifying the modules is probably a good start, but keep in mind that the other players may feel that you’re “cheating” them out of the challenge of playing it as written. Running different modules will help as well, I’m not personally familiar with the high level LG modules, but I’d guess that they were written by different authors, some of whom emphasized role-playing more than combat prowess.

However, overall, I’d say that it sounds like you should either find a gaming group where the other players are interested in the same things as you or stick with your current group, but alternate the D&D/LG game with a system that better supports your style of gaming.