Tie the character to something

dear all,

i am trying to develop this game mechanics and i need some help

the idea:

i want my character to be tied by an invisible rope to a certain point (perhaps with some elasticity if possible), so the character is free to move withing the area allowed by the length of the rope.

application:

i tried to use physics constraint, which this work fine for some thing being tied to the character not other way around
and when i tried to activate simulate physics on the character the movement got stop !!!

thanks in advance