Team Play
Communal or Task Nail
Home Improvement Variations
The Revenge Strike
Tricks Only
The King's Hammer
Tournament Play

Team Play
Team play is especially useful when there are many people and not enough space on the stump for one nail per person. During team play, each team can have one or more nails - an old favorite of mine is to give each team one 6-inch and one 4-inch nail. The turns rotate from team to team, so one player from each team attempts a toss on each turn. The order that each person tosses on a given team should remain constant throughout the game. All drinking rules apply to every member of the team, not just the team member representing the team on a given turn. During the Waterfall, ALL members of the second place team must continue chugging their beers until ALL members of the first place team have stopped chugging, and so on until the last team has finished.

Communal or Task Nail
a) There is a communal nail directly in the center of the stump. All players remain in the game until the communal nail is sunk. However, a player may only attempt to strike the communal nail if all his opponents' nails are sunk. The winner is the player who sinks the communal nail. This variation works best in one-on-one games, but can be extended to three players or more.

b) There is a task nail directly in the center of the stump. Players can attempt to strike the task nail at any time. If successfully struck, the striker can assign a task to an opposing player - for example, beer delivery, gymnastics feats, or bouts of nudity. Often, when the game is played in a public place, the task must not be one that can get the opposing player arrested, or it can be declined by the opposing player on such grounds. Further Variation: the difficulty of the task or number of tasks assigned is determined by the quality of the strike on the task nail.

c) There is a communal nail directly in the center of the stump. Players can attempt to strike the communal nail at any time. If successfully struck, an opponent of the striker's choice must drink. Home Improvement is communal. Further Variation: The player who sinks the communal nail can force an opponent of his choice to chug the remainder of his beer.

Home Improvement Variations
a) Sacrifice of Turn. If a player chooses to Home Improve his own nail, he foregoes the opportunity on that turn to attempt a toss.

b) Elimination of Home Improvement. This is a variation that can be implemented unilaterally or multilaterally at any point during the course of play. It is sometimes considered polite to eliminate Home Improvement during the later stages of a multi-player game, when several players have already been eliminated and the remaining players are making slow progress towards finishing the game.

c) Only the head of the hammer can be used for Home Improvement. It is illegal to use the claw of the hammer.

Revenge Strike
When a player is eliminated, he is given one more turn. On this turn he must attempt to strike the nail of the opponent who has just eliminated him. If he successfully sinks said opponent's nail, the two players switch places in the Waterfall. A successful strike without sinking the nail, while satisfying in and of itself, grants no rewards.

Tricks Only
The standard back flip toss is prohibited (in some cases the front flip might also be prohibited). A player who attempts striking a nail using the prohibited toss must finish his beer.

The King's Hammer
Also known as Sledge Stump or Thor's Hammer, this is a variation in which one player is allowed to use an oversized hammer, such as a small sledgehammer.

First you need to decide who will take the sledge at the beginning of the game. In order to do this, devise a fair means of giving the sledge without giving a huge advantage along with it. One way to do this is to have each person hit THEIR OWN nail as hard as they can and the person that hits THEIR OWN nail and puts it down the farthest, wins the sledge. Whoever has the biggest balls or the largest desire to get the sledge, wins it. You don't HAVE to hit your own nail (because if you hit it too hard you will win the sledge but will be at a considerable disadvantage when it comes to blows), but who wouldn't want the King's Hammer over a regular hammer? It's a great feeling of power.

Next, the first round of the game begins. It is played just like normal Stump except that one person has a freaking sledge and can basically dominate. In order to get the sledge yourself, you need to be the one who sinks the sledge owner's nail. Once they're out, you get the King's Hammer.

Naturally, everyone tends to gang up against the person with the sledge in hopes that they'll get it themselves, and this is good in that it basically balances out any heavy advantage the sledge owner may have because their nail will be getting constantly blasted. Very rarely does the person who starts the game with the sledge stay alive until the end.

Tournament Play
Designing a tournament that rewards and penalizes players according to their hammer skills, defensive strategies, and adherance to the spirit of the game is not as easy at it sounds. Here is a summary of how some tournaments have been played in the past:

For 18 players: Three stumps, six people on each stump.
Each group of six plays three games. The winner of each game gets four points. Second place gets two points. Third place gets one point.
Players are awarded an extra one point for each "kill" they administer on another nail.
The top two players from each of the three stumps move on to the final stump, in which one normal game is played to determine the champion. Scoring is irrelevant in the final game. It is all or nothing.

Other guidelines:
1) Further variations on scoring might include:
- Half-point bonus for the "kill" if the nail goes in straight (as opposed to sideways)
- Half-point deduction for dropping the hammer
- One-point bonus for a "one shot kill" in which one shot takes the nail from pristine to dead
- If incorporating the Revenge Strike variation, a revenge strike kill counts as two points instead of the usual one point
- One beer=one point
2) If one player is superior, consider applying a "gangbang rule": the same nail cannot be targeted more than twice in a row.
3) A scoreboard is a must as nobody will be able to keep track of their points after a few beers.