...and I'll probably run a Paranoia and/or Call of Cthulhu one-shot before we restart the D&D campaign.
After my current campaign escaped the Underdark, we decided to put 4E D&D on the back burner for a few weeks. We played Paranoia the first week (which was a blast to run, and great fun for my players as well). By popular demand, we'll be playing Paranoia next week as well (with the longer, funnier "Mr. Bubbles" adventure). The following week should see my 4E campaign resume as planned.
A two week break isn't really a hiatus, though. I've had more games than I care to count go on hiatus, never to return (though that was before I started running actual
campaigns). Still, there are two games which stick out in my mind when I think of a return from hiatus.
The first was my big, grand 3.5 Salamander campaign which ran from first level up to eighth level. It was an excellent game, where I ran a table of seven players, and they managed to complete the first major plot arc. The second involved a nebulous lich in the shadows sending assassins after them, and while they were finding out more about his whereabouts while themselves remaining hidden, the campaign broke down. Out of game tensions spilled over into the game, and ultimately, we had to take a break.
It was a great narrative moment; the characters all decided to go their separate ways for a year, agreeing to meet back at this spot to finish the hunt for the lich. We tried to resume the game several months later, but it was immediately apparent that nothing had changed, in regards to the out of game conflict. Sadly, a few sessions in, the game whimpered and died.
The second campaign was my friend's Epic-level 3.5 game. We were playing characters starting at level 30, and we were venturing through the Plane of the Lost and Forgotten. It was a really epic game, but the combat and the prep was really wearing on everyone. We decided to take a break for a month and return to the game fresh.
The return saw us entering the third layer of the plane. We were 34th level at the time, and immediately we were thrown into a CR36 encounter. Well, suffice to say that a month of not playing epic level D&D had left us a bit rusty as to our characters, and there was a TPK (technically my character plane shifted away, but that's semantics). And when you're dealing with epic, it's hard to roll up a new character to continue the quest.