[RPG] the Oberoni Fallacy

"Paranoia Combat" is largely the brainchild of Jon Chung¹, a poster on rpg.net. You can see some of the basic implementations (and rationales) at this link. These solutions were established in response to the notion that Second Edition Exalted, as written, is too lethal — that is, there are enough things that will kill a non-maximized Solar in one action that the only reasonable combat tactic is to use Perfect Defenses to turtle up, using motes as a kind of video-game lifebar.

The key piece is the paranoia combo: Excellency + Shadow over Water [or Seven Shadow Evasion] + Reflex Sidestep Technique + Leaping Dodge Method. This combo costs 10 XP to purchase, is friendly with Infinite Mastery, allows the character to perfectly defend against any attack, allows the nullification of unexpected attacks and allows the character to break most flurries. Invoke this combo for every single action in combat, using a 2-die stunt to restore the expended Willpower.

It's considered "bad" because it turns the Exalted combat system into a sort of solved problem. In the face of an intricate mechanic with literally hundreds of charms to choose from, there is one correct solution, and it's one that renders all the action and strategy mostly irrelevant. That's disappointing, and points to flaws in the game that make Tactician players unhappy.

The term "2-7 Filter²" is a way of referring to these combos more specifically, in regard to the phases of combat where they are applied:

Step 2 perfect defense + step 7 perfect soak. Seven Shadows Evasion, Heavenly Guardian Defense, Iron Skin Concentration (may not be viable post-errata), Adamant Skin Technique, etc. Most efficient defense in the game.

^{1 - As the White Wolf Forum closed down way before 2015, this is (now) an archived version on the Wayback machine.
2 - This page could not be found by the Wayback machine.}

It is indeed a new term used to describe conventional, normal RPGs in the "traditional" tabletop RPG format as opposed to newfangled indie games. It is not pejorative in nature, though it is used a little grudgingly as it mainly exists to distinguish "games that work like most every RPG ever as opposed to whatever crazy new variation you've come up with" in Internet discussions.

A trad game likely has:

• strongly differentiated GM and player roles
• task resolution via dice against skills, ability scores, or other metrics
• some basic nod to realistic simulation of the game world
• character advancement
• other stuff common to most RPGs ever made

D&D, GURPS, Rolemaster, and the vast majority of games published before the year 2000 are trad games. (Notable exception: Amber Diceless Roleplay). There are many new "trad" games too, from Savage Worlds to Eclipse Phase, that bring new genres or systems to gaming but stay within the traditional tabletop RPG format.

There is no clear legalistic differentiation between trad and indie. Most would say that the White Wolf Storyteller system, though it had initial aspirations to being narrative, is in retrospect a completely trad system. However, many new games have some aspects of traditional RPGs but innovate in one or a couple ways - there's no real clear "this crosses the line" criteria, it's more an attribute of self identification by the game's creator(s).