Last Updated on January 25, 2024 by Gamesver Team and JC Franco
Family events are a great way to make exciting memories with our loved ones, from the carefully-planned annual cookout to a casual weekend lunch. There are many ideas for games you could play during a family outing, and beer pong is especially popular. However, to get every member of the family fully involved, there are some things you have to consider.
Using the below-mentioned tips, let’s dive into how to plan the ultimate family-friendly beer pong game. Keep reading!
Consider 15 things for family-friendly Beer Pong:
1. Get Everyone Involved
One of the essential elements of every family-friendly game is that it should appeal to every family member, so everyone stays involved. Beer pong is traditionally an adult game, so you must be particular about involving the children when playing it at a family outing.
A great way to get them pumped for the game is to explain it to them and involve them in the planning. Whether the kids will have a beer pong game of their own or they’ll play with the grown-ups, it’s best to allow them to have a say and make choices while you’re setting up. Family games are best when nobody feels sidelined, and you all have fun!
2. Use an Accessible Table
Everyone in the family has different body builds and physical capabilities, so the beer-pong setup must be accessible enough for everybody to play comfortably.
You should choose a small table for kids and adolescents to lean over and bounce their balls. On the other hand, it shouldn’t be so small that it gives the physically larger adults an unfair competitive advantage. You can also buy a waterproof, adjustable Beer Pong table (available on Amazon.com) made especially for playing beer pong.
3. Choose Functional Cups
Traditionally, the standard cups used for playing beer pong are red disposable solo cups. However, you don’t have to stick to that. You should keep an open mind to ensure it’s the best choice for your game; if not, you can switch things up!
A suitable cup for beer pong should weigh 16 to 18 ounces (473 to 532 ml). More importantly, the width of its opening should be proportionate to the size of the ping-pong ball you’re using. For the ball to slide easily into the cups, its size should be about 23% of the cup’s opening. If you’re choosing a larger ball, you may have to pick a cup that’s wider than usual.
4. Explore Variations
You don’t have to follow conventional rules with your beer pong! There are many new and exciting variations of the game that you can explore to make playing even more fun. Let’s discuss some of these varieties.
Deer Pong
Deer Pong adds a family-friendly twist to the classic beer pong game – the cups balance on the antlers of a deer. The game is for family members older than eight, but according to Yahoo!, it has become all the rage even with younger kids.
Pelican Pong
Pelican pong is another beer pong where the cups are in the beaks of a couple of fun plastic pelicans. Unlike the other types where you play with cups of a certain width, the pelican beaks receiving the balls are wide enough to take multiple ones at once.
The game set also has many balls, so you can keep playing without looking for lost balls.
5. Use Colorful Balls To Excite Children
Why use a bunch of plain white balls for your beer pong game when you can add color to your competition? Opting for a set of colorful balls will surely make the children in the family even more excited about beer pong. A fun addition is using colors as codes for the winner’s prize or the loser’s “punishment.”
6. Have Non-alcoholic Drinks
Beer pong gets its name from the sort of gatherings the game evolved from – rowdy, intoxicating gatherings that seem like the last place you’d bring a family. As it has evolved into a more family-friendly game, the name has stayed the same, but its rules have changed to accommodate cleaner fun.
It’s best to include non-alcoholic beverages in beer pong. This helps to ensure that family members who are too young to take alcohol or may be abstaining for other reasons can also participate.
7. Encourage Healthy Competition
The beauty of a game is its ability to bring out the competitive spirit in every player. Even with family-friendly fun, it’s no different. While organizing and playing beer pong, you should encourage competition among all players. You can follow these steps to make your family-friendly game competitive:
- Divide players into competing groups.
- Keep a scoreboard.
- Set rules for the conduct of players.
- Give a prize or reward to the winning player or team.
8. Make Allowances for the Younger Players
While the players compete during the beer-pong game, keeping the atmosphere healthy and friendly is essential. The competitive advantage of the players or groups should also be as balanced as possible.
To even things out, you may need to make some allowances for the younger players to indulge them while keeping them involved.
9. Include Accessories
You can use many accessories to set up and play beer pong, making the process much easier. I recommend a small, portable Beer-pong set. They usually come with two stands, a carrying case, and the balls- so all you need to get are the drinks and the cups.
There are plenty of other accessories that you can find online! Your family will enjoy browsing through the different options with you.
10. Switch Up the Game
You can add extra challenges to make your family-friendly game of cup pong more interesting. The Cuponk rule that rates how stylishly you get the ball into the cup is an excellent example. Another type is Devil Pong, a variety where each cup has a disgusting but drinkable liquid that the losing player or team has to drink!
11. Add Some Mystery
Mystery and suspense are the spice of games, and adding some of that to your beer-pong game can take it from plain to super-duper fun! A popular suggestion is creating a back-story around your game of cup pong and getting all family members to role-play. You could also try Surprise Pong, where you fill all cups with a different mystery drink.
12. Opt for an Easily Cleanable Venue
Beer pong can be quite a messy game. As balls fall into cups, the drinks in them are bound to splash around, and people won’t worry much about splashes in the heat of play. However, after the party, you’ll have some cleaning to do, and you should set the game up to make that task as easy as possible.
Choosing a venue that you can easily clean will go a long way toward minimizing any worries about damage and hygiene.
13. Avoid Germs
Many people want to drink from the cups even after a ping-pong ball has been repeatedly bounced into it. Well, that’s never a good idea.
Your group will have most likely passed the ball between many hands and even more surfaces all day. It’s safest to throw away all drinks that come in contact with it.
14. Minimize Hazards
With the children and adults in the family running around a crowded playing area, it can be challenging to look out for everybody. However, you should minimize all hazards in the playing area. An excellent way to do this is to appoint an older chaperone for each group of children.
15. Everyone Cleans Up
It’s best not to place the burden of cleaning an entire beer-pong venue on one person or a small group of people. As the whole family has fun playing the game, you can also make cleaning fun. A preliminary clean-up exercise will make the job much easier for whoever will do the final cleaning.
This article was co-authored by our team of in-house and freelance writers, and reviewed by our editors, who enjoy sharing their knowledge about their favorite games with others!
JC Franco
JC Franco serves as a New York-based editor for Gamesver. His interest for board games centers around chess, a pursuit he began in elementary school at the age of 9. Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Business from Mercyhurst University, JC brings a blend of business acumen and creative insight to his role. Beyond his editorial endeavors, he is a certified USPTA professional, imparting his knowledge in tennis to enthusiasts across the New York City Metropolitan area.