Once my character, Vincenzo Gasparian, kidnapped Cecil (
@Streako 's char). He kept imprisoned for some weeks, and when I couldn't log on, I told Streako that he could just leave, but he didn't, because he was having fun. I found a better solution, my character released him and forced Cecil to bring gold and wealth to my char, at the end, Cecil suffered a lot of both physical and mental pain, which ended in him going kind of insane, and Vincenzo releasing after.
The point is,
character imprisonment should provide fun to all involved.
Even then, it was weeks. Sometimes, weeks extends way past vacation season/weekends.
I'll add my own input to this, as I've actually had this problem occur to me thrice over the past couple months. Tuti, yours was really a minor case-- All parties involved were trying to be active through all of it, and ultimately it was poor timing that screwed us over. You really did your best, and thank you for both the awesome roleplay and the consideration you showed both then and now.
That said, I will be using you as an anechdotal example alongside my two other experiences with people that will remain unnamed for sake of privacy and to avoid meta-- I'll keep my tone positive, don't worry!
Going off of what Tuti said, imprisonment should be a fun and interesting part of roleplay, and I (a little too actively, to be honest) seek it out due to the conflict it causes and the number of people that can be drawn in. That said, there are certain situations that inherently suck major dong for imprisonment. I feel that, in general, if imprisoning another player's character occurs as a reaction rather than an action (that is, you more or less think it up on the spot, instead of plan it or have a strong reason for it), it will result in contrived, boring roleplay for both parties involved-- even if the Victim is fully consenting to the imprisonment. The reason for this is that a reaction will never have a longterm plan, and as such the Villain will not know what to do with their prisoner. Anechdotally, I have two examples-- Tuti, to a minor degree, and another person who abducted my Saivalthar, Belar, with all the right intent but none of the right reasons.
Briefly, Tuti's vampire got high on my Shendar's (Cecil's) blood and more or less had a night on the town with my Shendar, who was incapacitated due to blood-loss. In-character events precipitated Cecil being abducted for a short while-- And then Tuti had the idea to force Cecil to steal for him. The real problem came later when Cecil disobeyed, which resulted in what should have been a brief exchange that was unfortunately drawn out.
A seperate instance occurred when Belar began desperately banging on the gate of the old Nenyarina base, believing that Chrysalis was inside. A passerby happened to see the events unfolding, and in order to stop her, he knocked her out and imprisoned her in his base to detox. I promptly could not find the fellow for the rest of the week-long period of detox-- And I mean an OOC week.
Both instances suffer from a similar problem, the second much worse than the first: A lack of premeditation. The point of roleplay is to weave a story, and any action that takes place in a story should have some sort of narrative value. Abducting a person with no reason other is a meaningless gesture-- You can't just think of what comes before and what happens during, you must also think of what comes
after the abduction. How do you give it more meaning? How do you ensure that everyone involved is getting something of narrative value for this investment?
Why are you imprisoning someone? Is it for a ransom? Is it for vengence? It better be good, because by disconnecting that character from the world, you become in essence their lifeline to the world-- You stand in for an entire world of lore that's been in constant development for years, as well as the hundreds of players that enact that lore everyday. You must find a way to make imprisonment so worthwhile for the victim that they are happy to be taken away from that world. The only way I can perceive this is by having a particular motive and need from the imprisoned. You force them to be with you, so you need to make sure you're interesting enough to be with. Perhaps parade them around, or arrange a 'chance meeting' with someone who knows the victim while moving them from one location to another.
Tl;dr-- By kidnapping someone, you make an unspoken promise to make their time away from the world as valuable as that world, if not moreso. Roleplay's all about story archs. If you're not furthering an arch, then you're wasting everyone's time. Have a good reason for kidnapping someone, and make sure they have a reason for sticking around other than "I'm being held against my will". Everyone should have a stake in imprisonment.
