Actually, I am a major fan of D.E.S.T., but that all stems from years of playing Wraith, Vampire, and Werewolf. Those systems show you how its very possible to make a realistic and fun game w/o too many rules involved. So I just transferred it over to D&D.
Take for example, my Kingdoms of Kalamar game. It is in Geanavue right now (thats where it started), and for the first 4 sessions, not more than 5 dice were thrown the whole time. All it was was solid RPing and improv storytelling by all around the table, not just me the DM.
But back to the point of the thread:
I dont see high level gaming as powermonger munchin type playing at all. Ive been gaming for 16 years now...
::counts on his fingerss a few times::
...I mean 18 years now, and the meaning of that deragatory word (to us "geeks" anyway...lol) has been someone who plays the game totally hack and slash with NO roleplaying, no cohesion in the game, and nothing takes place in the head, only on paper in the form of numbers.
[i}"Hey, I have an 18 strength!"
"Hey, I have a 19 strength, my character is better than yours and must have survived more"
"Oh yea, well I have a +5 sword of everything slaying, everything defending! So you stink!"[/i]
-=grim=-