What Network Options Should I Set Before Gaining Access Phase ?

hello , I've been taken courses and collecting a lot of info about networking and how devices locally and remotely communicate . when it comes to security i found that exploiting remote device requires backdoor to be sent and to open specific port (port forwarding) on your router depending on the service you are targeting . however if you and the victim are sharing the same network then no need for port forwarding .

my scenario is that am trying to gain access to any device in my home without sending backdoor by exploiting the services with msfconsole , am using kali linux on virtualbox and i set the network to be bridged connection to use the kali machine as a separated device with a local ip in my network , i scanned the network i sent arp request and all fine i can see all the devices connected to my network then i did the nmap scan and all good i can find the services , OS , and ports opened of each device , i searched for these services exploits and i tried to exploit after i set all the options (RHOST , RPORT , LHOST...etc) but the exploit not working , am thinking that am missing some configuration before i start exploiting , like is it right that am using bridged network ? even if i changed it to nat network it wont work , is there any configuration or commands i should set before exploiting ? as far as i know i don't need port forwarding for lan hacking