Beer pong is a popular drinking game that is typically played by teams of at least two players, although this varies widely, as do the rules that govern play. It involves tossing a ping-pong ball across a table into one of 10 plastic cups partially filled with beer. The opponent must drink all the beer in that cup. Beer pong tables are sold online; however, much of the fun is derived from creating your own unique design for the playing surface.

Arrange a triangular rack of plastic cups on opposite ends of a long kitchen island. Fill the cups with beer and you are ready to play. The decision to play beer pong often is a spontaneous one, requiring innovative use of materials that are readily available.

Align the cup arrangement on a dining room or kitchen table extended as long as possible. Move chairs out of the way and remove breakables from the play area. Place trash containers close by and have cleaning cloths and mops available.

Remove the net from a ping-pong table and form the triangle pattern of cups on each end of the table. To add a twist to the game, use the ping-pong paddles to hit the ball into the cups across the table.

Buy an 8-foot long section of plywood. The width should be anywhere from 2 feet to 4 feet, depending on the space available for play. Legs can be fashioned using four two-by-fours screwed onto the four corners of the underside of the plywood, using an L-bracket for stability. Paint an entertaining design on the plywood surface.

Purchase folding-table legs from a home building store and screw them to the bottom of the plywood at either end, creating a fold-away table. Measure carefully to ensure the legs are equally spaced. Paint the plywood first with primer, then acrylic paint in the design of your choosing and finally cover with two layers of a lacquer finish.

Buy a piece of 8- by 4-foot Plexiglas and set it on a dining room table, a billiard or pool table, a picnic table, a foosball table, a shuffleboard table, two sawhorses, stacked bricks or stackable storage bins.

Prop a surfboard up on a couple saw horses or stack-able bins and set up the triangular rack of cups with the single cup at the table edge. A windsurfer minus the sail would work as well. Unconventional playing surfaces can add to the appeal of the game and may sometimes require adapting the rules to fit the table.

Remove the door handle from an old door and set it on empty packing boxes. Reusable doors can be found in secondhand stores, on shopping websites and sometimes tucked away in a basement or garage. Flat-surface doors would be best, however, as doors with cutaway designs would add a challenge to the game.

Use ropes and pulleys to hang a uniquely designed plywood sheet from the ceiling, so it can be pulled up and out of the way when not in use. Ensure the pulleys are well anchored on solid ceiling beams and the ropes are securely tied.

Make use of your surroundings to create a one-of-a-kind beer pong table. If you live at the beach, dig a rectangular pit in the sand and place a board in the middle, so the players stand in the pit at either end of the board. If you live in the frozen north, build a table out of snow and flood it a few times, allowing it to freeze between each flood, creating a seasonal beer pong table.

Ask an owner or manager of a fast-food restaurant for old foam-core advertising posters, flip them over and set them on a couple garbage cans weighted with water, bricks or books. If you can get two posters the same size, glue them together to increase the strength of the improvised table.