Some miscellaneous quests not working?

[A Harmless Burke]

Some of these side quests won't work. For example, Ysolda in Whiterun won't give me the quest to give her a mammoth tusk, or Brunwulf Free-Winter in Windhelm won't give me the quest to kill a group of bandits that were raiding Dunmer caravans or whatever it was. Anyone know what the issue is and how I can fix it?

[gnewna]

I think sometimes these quests just don't show up for whatever reason (I've had playthroughs where I could never get Ysolda to talk about the caravans, or whichever of her lines it is that starts that quest). However, some of these favour quests won't activate because you've got a similar quest open from another NPC, e.g. I think Runil (the priest in Falkreath) will only ask you to find his journal if you don't have certain other quests open, and I seem to remember one of them was Brunwulf's. I can't double check as my browser's playing up, but if you look the quests up on the UESP it should say.

Edit: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Kill_the_Bandit_Leader If you've got a 'kill the bandit leader' quest for Ahtar (the Solitude executioner), Anneke Crag-Jumper (in Darkwater Crossing) or Fanari Strong-Voice (Solstheim) this won't activate until you've completed that.

And Ysolda's is a "rare item" quest http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Rare_Gifts so if you've got any off that list uncompleted, doing that should open up Ysolda's quest.

[voehringer_nitron]

Each of these quests falls into a group of radiant quests, and only one of each type can be active at a time. So, if the Blacksmith in Dawnstar asked you to find a copy of Night Falls on Sentinel, or Jarl Siddgeir asked for some Black-Briar Mead, you will need to do that before you can get the Mammoth tusk for Ysolda. If you already have a kill a bandit leader quest, such as from Ahtar in Solitude, you will need to kill them first.

There are a few bugs listed on the wiki, mainly associated with clearing out the locations where the bandit leader might be before being assigned the quest, but they are listed as fixed by the Unofficial Patch.