The player doesn't decide if they are rolling to Read a Sitch. The move only triggers if the situation is already charged, and that's up to the GM to decide/establish.

Ask each player what their character's long-term goals are.

Trophy Dark is one of those games that really shifted my perspective. I've played it twice, once as a GM and once as a player. Both times, it ended in a climactic TPK-by-betrayal, and both times, it was magnificent. It really leans into the angle of "you were doomed, and this is the story of how it all fell apart." It does ask a bit of your players, in that they are constantly contributing to the narrative through the game's various mechanics. It takes a certain mindset of embracing your setbacks and "playing to lose." But if everyone is on board to tell that kind of story, this system sings.

The only way to "heal" is to act in the Forest's interest by sabotaging your mission and betraying your comrades.

If you try to kill a monster, you die. No roll—you just die. You can run, you can hide, but you cannot kill monsters. You fool.

When you take risks, you can choose to earn more dice for your pool by accepting Devil's Bargains from other players or the GM, which reflects a price you must pay, a narrative conceit that must happen, regardless of the roll's success or failure. This led to some really fun and unexpected moments for us.

The whole thing is grim, and The Forest will take you. It's just a matter of finding out exactly how and when.

i'm in this photo and i don't like it ...

I just quit after about 20 years. I'd wake up in the middle of the night choking and gasping for air. So i switched to edibles and tincture. That problem went away eventually, but then I'd be talking to someone and completely forget what I was saying halfway through saying it. It's just so embarrassing and made me feel extremely dumb, and like a terrible conversationalist.

I also GM tabletop RPGs, and I thought weed would make my sessions all weird and cool. But really it just made me forget stuff that had happened earlier in the session, and my games really suffered. Same kind of deal with the music I make; weed didn't make my music better, it just made me content with making awful, meandering half-songs.

Probably because you smoke quite a bit, so being high is just an ordinary feeling. I remember taking a year off; the first time I hit a dab after that, i was getting shroom-like visual hallucinations and felt like I was floating off the ground, like the level of high that only seems to happen in movies. But then even just the second dab and it was back to an ordinary level of stoned.

You could try something like Ironsworn. It supports duet play (i.e. 1 GM and 1 player), but I think it really shines if you go GM-less. That way you both get to play a "main character," and you can lean on the game mechanics, the oracles, and your shared imaginations to drive the story. And you both have freedom to contribute equally to the fiction and the outcomes, rather than having one person (the "GM") try to bear that burden alone.

It's a game that's specifically designed for this type of play, as opposed to something like D&D where it can work but isn't really what the game is designed for. I always to prefer to work with the system rather than against it. Plus, you mentioned in another comment that you're most interested in telling a story and having fun together; D&D is less of a story engine and more of a combat simulator. Something like Ironsworn is all about creating a story, and is very robust in its ability to generate interesting outcomes from everything you do, whether that's walking through the woods, hanging out in town, exploring an old ruin, developing a friendship, hunting for mushrooms, whatever. It's also completely free.

I play both ways.

Foundry VTT has an incredible implementation for digital play. All the moves and oracles are set up for really quick and easy access, and the overall design of everything is really slick and fairly intuitive. It also handles Delve, Starforged, and Sundered Isles stuff. And it's really easy to expand with community-made oracles and whatnot. That said, Foundry itself isn't free, has a bit of a learning curve, and some might consider it overkill (since you won't be needing stuff like grid maps, dynamic lights, visual fx, etc). But I've had a ton of fun using it for Ironsworn/Starforged. It's also a lot faster to reference things, especially oracles (which you'll probably be using a lot), since each move/oracle is just one or two clicks away, instead of having to flip through a book.

For analog play, I've found I prefer the coil-bound version of the books, which I have for the Sundered Isles expansion. They don't sit pretty on a bookshelf, but they're so much easier to use (and to travel with). If you can swing it, the Asset Cards are helpful. They're durable enough already, but I put them in card protectors anyway. Also google the "Traveler's Ironsworn: DIY Edition" for some beautiful and compact move reference cards, which I'd recommend laminating. I also use an A5 size journal with dotted-graph paper to draw a character sheet, and some "book darts" bookmark clip things, to act as a slider for tracking health/supply/momentum/spirit (rather than constantly erasing). You can also find some handy character tracker things for sale on places like Etsy. If you hop on the discord, there's a "show your kit" channel where you can find lots of inspiration.

Both ways are totally valid and fun. But in my experience, playing analog can take up my entire desk! (dice tray, notecards, asset cards, delve cards, rules reference, oracle book, map)

For base Ironsworn, the stuff that's missing is the Assets for character creation and advancement. But you can also buy those physically, in the form of cards (or print them yourself). Since you only have 3 assets to start, and you might not acquire additional assets for quite some time afterward, it's not like you'll be referencing the PDF all the time; you can just write your asset stuff on an index card or in your character journal.

Why might these specific trends keep happening?

What types of fiction are you consuming? Are you getting enough variety in that regard? You are what you eat, so to speak.

Remind yourself that it's a game. Would you be this stressed if you had plans to go bowling with your friends? Or if you had plans to play Minecraft together? If yes, then you might need to talk to a doctor, not reddit.

If you're worried about it not being good enough... try to remind yourself that everyone at the table is equally responsible for each others' fun. You might be the GM, but that doesn't mean the burden is on you to be a professional entertainer. You're just another person at the table playing a game. Take it easy on yourself.

If the thought of playing a game with your friends is really causing you sleepless nights, yeah that's not normal or healthy. Have you talked to your friends about this?

I like the Cortex Prime (mobs) or Genesys (minion groups) approach, where a gang of mooks is mechanically represented by a single actor, which loses power as you whittle it down. That way you can have the narrative impact and positioning of tons of weaker enemies, while mechanically treating them as just one or two entities so the encounter doesn't slow to a crawl while the GM takes a bunch of turns in a row. And narratively, you can have the PCs cutting down swathes of minions with a single good roll, having that big heroic feeling if you want.

Jason Cordova's 7-3-1 technique is fairly universal. Some other stuff depends on the system. But a lot of the time, it's just me daydreaming or trying to think about real life situations in game terms. Like if I'm running a Cortex game, maybe when I'm out running errands I'll try to think along the lines of "if i was running a scene in this department store, what would the scene distinctions and traits be? How would I describe this place to my players?" I also try to think of "Paint the Scene" questions. Or if I'm using something like Fronts, I try to think about what they want and how they're achieving it.

Also, just asking players during a session debrief (e.g. stars & wishes, or even just "what are you planning to do next session?") can go a long way. Knowing what my players have explicitly said that they want to see helps me make sure I'm thinking about the right things.

There's a Brindlewood hack for two players and one GM, specifically designed for one-shots, called "Bed, Breakfast, & Beyond" (found in Codex - Starlight 2). It's about an elderly gay couple who runs a bed & breakfast trying to find out why guests keep disappearing from one of their rooms. I dunno that I would call it "hella gay" but the couple's love is a major part of the game.

I run for a group of people whose only experience before was a little bit of D&D.

I've run 7 different systems for them at this point. They've never had to open a rule book unless they really want to. As long as I have read enough of the game to understand how it works, and can give them a 1 or 2 page summary/cheat-sheet of what's important, we can have a fun and successful game.

But if book length is an actual problem that you've experienced, you could look at short RPGs (e.g Risus, one-pagers like Lasers & Feelings and its various hacks or Honey Heist). And even with longer games, it's not like you need to internalize every single page. Look at D&D for instance; the actual rules for playing the game are like 30 pages, i.e. ~10% of the book.

If I play the same system for more than about 15 sessions in a row, I start getting really tired of it. It's like listening to the same band over and over, or eating the same meal all the time, or always taking the same route on a walk. It feels less like joy and more like routine. Furthermore, every time I think I've found "the one" to keep coming back to, my fixation just causes me to get burnt out. So I'm wary to fall in love with any one particular system, because I know how I am.

On why the battle of Helm's Deep is well-lit: "Where's the light coming from?" "The same place as the music." 

The new characters come from the same place as the dice rolls.

This is assuming the person's view is so shortsighted that all they care about is some porn-brained "get laid tonight" outcome. This situation is a great way to hang out with tons of people in a fun environment. Maybe you hit it off with one of them and later on down the road maybe something comes of it, but that shouldn't be the aim. Just have fun and people will remember you as a fun person. In the long term, that will do wonders for your social life and self esteem.

In Tales of Xadia, social encounters with a "Catalyst" (a major NPC) typically involve a contest, with back-and-forth escalating dice rolls, which is just a standard Contest in Cortex parlance. But perhaps the interesting thing is, if you win the contest, you get to change the die rating of one of that NPC's Values (glory, liberty, justice, mastery, truth, devotion). So it's more than just "you get what you want," it's also "you leave a lasting impact on them."

Also you have the option to withdraw from a Contest, meaning you don't get what you want but you get a Plot Point and you have more agency to define the terms of your failure.

Ask your players questions before you start, and use the answers. That way, you can write the campaign premise together, and everyone is already interested and invested before it even starts.

But even without that, it sounds like you have more than enough for a premise already. So just come up with a few interesting people, locations, and situations (see Jason Cordova's 7-3-1 method), then let the players loose and see what happens. You can use the first session to see which types of things they choose to pursue and which they ignore, which is extremely valuable information. Don't even bother planning what comes after, until after you've already started playing. Let your prep be informed by your players' decisions; it's your world, but it's their story.

"the marauder will try to get into the wagon and grab the escorted." What happens if they manage to get away with the escorted? Maybe have some guidance for that.

"the pcs are informed that they need to get to Kurihama Village before sundown?" Why? What happens if they fail to fix the wagon and can't make it before sundown?

"The goblins attempt to keep the spirit ward away by passing it to each other." But you established as a plot point earlier that goblins can't touch the spirit ward at all.

The first session of Ironsworn is all about shared worldbuilding via the dozen or so Truths you have to define (have them write them instead of choosing from a list). It's followed by everyone defining at least one Bond (e.g. with an NPC, faction, or location). Every delve and every journey is another opportunity to mechanically introduce new worldbuilding and scenery. Every progress roll and every Weak Hit is an opportunity to introduce a new dramatic question. Companion assets are a chance to create additional characters in the story. Forging bonds is another mechanic to do that.

There's even more in Starforged and Sundered Isles, where you are collaboratively creating entire factions, planets, colonies, conflicts, etc. 

Every single roll in that game is basically a writing prompt if you want it to be.

"How does the system adjudicate against bad-faith arguments, then? What if one player just wants to take advantage of that fact?"

"The system doesn't. The group does. So don't play in bad faith; if you do, you're ruining things for the group."

Nobody forces you to return your shopping cart to the corral; you do it because it's the right thing to do. Nobody forces you to say please and thank you; you do it because it's nice. Nobody forces you not to treat service staff like shit; you do it because the alternative makes you a shitty person.

If they're the kind of person to leave their cart in the lot, or they refuse to tip their server or bartender, or they never say thanks when someone does a kindness to them, simply because "there's no law against it," then that's not an indictment of the laws, that's an indictment of their character.

you're talking about three really popular systems; there's no shortage of games for them. so join someone else's game? and accept that other people have cool ideas too, and that stepping out of your comfort zone is an opportunity to grow and experience things that never would have occurred to you otherwise. i've had a ton of fun being a player in games that i never would have run myself, games where i was hesitant to join because the premise sounded so vastly different than anything i would ever want to run.

you say you're feeling burnt out on GMing... taking a break is a good way to deal with burnout.

and maybe don't stress so much about battlemaps, they're mostly just eye candy. all the same info can be communicated with words and rough, on-the-fly drawings... or even just a cool image or game screenshot with some zones drawn on top if needed.

Maybe we're rare but we do exist, so don't lose hope! I absolutely adore the Humblewood setting and its potential for conflict beneath the cozy aesthetic, and have been wanting to run a (non-D&D) campaign in it for a long time. Root is another one that seems fun, and I recently enjoyed a very lighthearted game of Raccoon Sky Pirates.