Can I intentionally pick an action or item I know is going to be invalid during the resolution phase? There was a case I wanted to stay in the secret room waiting for the halo conference room to open up (which it did next turn). Could I have played the extract/download card again even though there is no data left in the secret room to essentially allow myself to stay in the same room another turn? It seems like I could??? I read the rule that forbids playing the Advance/Retreat while delayed but there was nothing about playing a card you know won't resolve.

Ooh, good question. I'm gonna say yes, partly because the way the Selection phase rules are worded makes it seem like the delayed restriction is a special exception, but also because the discussion of the Interface and Download actions gives the impression that they still technically resolve whenever their conditions aren't met, but without having any effect.

Oh! Come to think of it, it has to be allowed: if you're delayed and itemless in a room with no data or interface tokens, then you wouldn't have a legal play otherwise.

Now, there's a trickier question, which is "could you have played Advance , hoping that someone ahead of you was about to reveal the Halo room?" My gut feeling is that even that would have been permissible, though that's a much harder claim to defend.

Point is that when you select an action, you don't know what others have selected, so during normal play it could happen that you play a Download card even with no available tokens in the room (the guy before you just cleaned them all and you got nothing), and this is consistent with the rules. So, I'd go for a 'yes', simply because this could happen even during normal play.

Thanks for the replies!