Question about the Observation room.

The VIP Observation room allows you advance/retreat into a couple of the special rooms. I assume if these aren't revealed, you can't do it. Simple enough.

However, that room *also* lets you secretly look at 3 rooms. If you know where one of the special rooms is, can you advance/retreat into it? Thematically, it seems like you should be able to, but rules-wise, unclear.

I asked this on the BGG forums and Donald Vaccarino replied and said that he wasn't actually the authority on Infiltration rules questions (since it sounds like the game was developed after he hended it off). I'd love an "official" answer to this (either ruling seems reasonable).

"To leave the secret room, an operative must either play his Retreat card to enter the Research Admin Office (if it is revealed) or play his Advance card to enter the Halo Conference Room (if it is revealed)."

Seems quite clear to me that the rooms have to already be revealed. This makes sense since secret rooms aren't adjacent to any room, and it seems you can only enter adjacent unrevealed rooms normally.

evilidler said:

Infiltration just got even sillier if this interpretation is widely adopted as sacrosanct.

I see where you're coming from, but why in the hell would the room become accessible only after people walked to it from an adjacent location?

"Oh yeah, Gabriel, I could see through this window, but a chair was blocking the door till Mr. White slipped in and moved it."

It's definitely the correct interpretation, but as for silliness, this scenario doesn't seem any sillier than the usual one: you're in (let's say) the prototype lab or the brain scan station, but can't find the exit that leads to the Halo room until someone enters it normally. If that's not silly already, why does adding a window make it silly?