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SPOILER INFO
No spoilers. This article explains a minor bug that, judging by forum articles, is creating a lot of confusion.
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You have surely noticed how one or another item you carry in your inventory is not listed when you go to trading mode (meaning, you can't sell it), and when you try to drop it, you are informed you can't because it's a quest item.
Now, it's a good thing the game prevents you from mistakenly losing your valuable quest items, but what about the ones belonging to quests you are not interested in completing? Weight is a huge problem in Skyrim. One can't afford to just permanently carry dead weight.
Now, I eventually found that the console command removeitem fixes that problem (help on syntax is easy to find online), but while looking for it, it was hard to miss several forum discussions that went like:
"Quest items don't weigh, you stupid moron."
"Of course they weigh, you fucking prick!"
or
"Although your inventory shows as if quest items have a weight, in reality they don't weigh anything lol."
"Tell that to my weight limit, smartass!"
The thing is: there are two kinds of quest items. It's most unfortunate that it isn't clearly explained anywhere.
When you are told to find a specific item, such as Roggi's Ancestral Shield , it's called a unique quest item.
Unique quest items really don't weigh anything. Your inventory suggests they do, but actually their weight is 0. You can verify that. Next time before you pick up a unique quest item, open your inventory and note your total weight. Then pick the quest item up. You will see that your total weight has remained the same.
When you are told to find a certain number of certain items, such as 10 Dwemer Cogs , those are called generic quest items.
Generic quest items do weigh all right, but they can also be sold and dropped.
So the game bug that makes the inventory lie to you that unique quest items weigh is merely confusing you. It's not actually screwing you with dead weight. You can rest assured that when you aren't allowed to drop an item, it isn't adding to your weight either.
[originally published 2017-02-08]
