diff --git a/apps/openmw/mwdialogue/dialoguemanager.cpp b/apps/openmw/mwdialogue/dialoguemanager.cpp
index d98b295f3..053e3987b 100644
--- a/apps/openmw/mwdialogue/dialoguemanager.cpp
+++ b/apps/openmw/mwdialogue/dialoguemanager.cpp
@@ -390,6 +390,11 @@ namespace MWDialogue
 
     DialogueManager::DialogueManager (MWWorld::Environment& environment) : mEnvironment (environment) {}
 
+    void DialogueManager::addTopic(std::string topic)
+    {
+        knownTopics[toLower(topic)] = true;
+    }
+
     void DialogueManager::startDialogue (const MWWorld::Ptr& actor)
     {
         std::cout << "talking with " << MWWorld::Class::get (actor).getName (actor) << std::endl;
diff --git a/apps/openmw/mwdialogue/dialoguemanager.hpp b/apps/openmw/mwdialogue/dialoguemanager.hpp
index 7579ce7e4..cafad7c6e 100644
--- a/apps/openmw/mwdialogue/dialoguemanager.hpp
+++ b/apps/openmw/mwdialogue/dialoguemanager.hpp
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@ namespace MWDialogue
 
             void startDialogue (const MWWorld::Ptr& actor);
 
+            void addTopic(std::string topic);
+
             //calbacks for the GUI
             void keywordSelected(std::string keyword);
             void goodbyeSelected();