Could someone give me advice on how to manage a broken quest please with console commands. EG, lets say I need to speak to someone to advance the quest but nothing happens when I do.

I'm just after some commands that will allow me to go further in the quest or take a step back and try again and if all else fails remove the quest completely (or start from the very beginning of it again and see if it works a second time round).

I have a few broken quest I'd like to do but can't.

Thanks

setstage Sets the current stage of the given quest. Example: setstage ms01 100. The setstage command is useful for advancing broken quests, finishing quests instantly, or for skipping ahead to a certain point in a quest. You can find the quest's ID code, as well as the various stages of the quests and their corresponding stage numbers, on the respective quest page. To start, see the main index of http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Quests.

See UESP link in sig.

make sure you save before doing any fiddling about. just a tip.

Thanks, that's very helpful.

I tried these commands for "Blood on the Ice" they had no effect at all. I typed "setstage ms11 1" to start the thing from the beginning, I also tried "setstage ms11b 1" and several other stage numbers, nothing happened:(

Im pretty sure the stages are in tens values. The start would be 10 next stage 20 and so on,I know that how it used to be for the other Beth games.

Not all stages are in 10. Normally, quests have 4 or 5 stages, and the higher numbers go to 50, sometimes 100, and then 200. So, it's not a 10, 20, 30, 40 progression.

OP, you have to check each quest, because the "setstage" numbers are different for each quest.

OK, I just looked at the numbers and you seem to have them correct. Try closing the console after each command. So, enter setstage XXXX XX, hit return, close console. Don't know if you're entering them all at once or not. Sorry, just trying to think of things that may help you.

Well I tried everything and the only thing that worked was typing "setstage ms11 100" which finished the quest completely... which wasn't my intention. I wanted to start it again and hope it wasn't bugged this time round. But at least its better then having an unfinishable quest in my journal.

Is there a way to zero out the quest, as in, it has never been started?

Good question.

Nope. Setstage can only advance active quests, you cannot move stage backward or alter finished quests. There is no way to do what you want because of the way world objects and scripts are separate thing that change with the quest and you cannot just undo. Have to wait for a fix on broken quests and start fresh playthrough.

I think Mitchalek is right. That's how Oblivion's quest system worked as well.

Oh well, at least I can now end the broken quests. Thanks for the help.