I’ll be hosting a game of 101 Bricks at the upcoming virtual Bricks by the Bay event. Sadly the pandemic rules out any in-person activities this year, but they’re having a Zoom-based online convention instead, next Saturday July 11th. It’s not too late to register, and it’s only $5 per household to attend!

101 Bricks is a game that I picked up at BrickCon in Seattle a number of years ago. I used to host the game in person at Bricks by the Bay and earlier this year I even played it at Bricks Cascade. (They called it 99 Bricks at Bricks Cascade, but it’s the same game with 2 fewer elements.)

I don’t know if this has been played on Zoom before at one of the other virtual conventions, or if this is the first time it’s being done… so there may be some glitches, but we’ve got a pretty good idea of how to play this online. The rules are pretty simple:

1. Everyone brings 101 bricks of their own to the event. They can be any LEGO elements, any shape or size. Every element counts! Things like tires, minifig legs, etc. are all counted separately; in other words, if it counts towards the parts count on a LEGO set or if you can order it individually on BrickLink, it should count separately towards your 101 bricks for this game. We won’t be able to verify your brick count, but we will require you to turn your camera on with Zoom so we can see your bricks and the things you build with them, so be honest.
2. The person running the game (me) will announce a series of build challenges. Each one is 3 minutes long. You build, using only the parts you brought with you, something that matches the theme of the challenge. If you’ve seen LEGO Masters, it’s like that, but only 3 minutes per build.
3. We will spotlight the video of each participant in turn and then vote to determine a winner for each round, and the totals are tracked in a spreadsheet. Vote will be done by Zoom poll, so only one vote per Zoom connection is allowed. (If you have several people in one household joining us, each can vote if you use multiple devices — just turn the audio off for all but one of them in the room please.)
4. After 10 rounds (or however many we have time for), the winner is the one with the most wins.

So if you’re interested in joining us, register for Bricks by the Bay and join the 101 Bricks room on Zoom on Saturday at 6pm. (Note: hours may vary; schedule is subject to change).