Backgammon variants and play...

So, I've playing a bunch of chess and backgammon on my birthday, today, and I'm down a couple hundred points, but I've been in contention all day. I don't mind losing when it's close.

I tried a backgammon variant called "nackgammon" where 2 of your pieces are put on the 2 diamond at the beginning of play. It was fun, but I was wondering are there other ways to setup the board and play?! I've come up with 2 variants so far...

1) First I came up with a starting position that might result in a longer and more straight-forward game. Start the game with the same number of pieces on each diamond, except all of your pieces start on the opposite side of the board. The only downside I see to this method is that some rolls might not be as obvious like when you roll a 5 it wouldn't lead to the traditional candlesticks layout. Yet, this method would be a clear choice for simplifying the game and would lead to different tactics and roll-outs.

2) The second modification I came up with for backgammon is what might be called "Open Doubling" where the 1 receiving the challenge doesn't actually receive the doubling cube. This might lead to abusive play and unreasonable scenarios but it would allow for the stakes to be raised faster and might lead to interesting risk-taking game-play. You would still propose a double starting your turn, but you could propose a double each turn if wanted. Although the traditional method of doubling seems more reasonable for casual and tournament play.

That said, I'm sick of being a break even player, I want to start whooping the computer.

UPDATE (12-8-2019):
Another way of playing backgammon
3) I got this idea from Wikipedia.com and it was a fun game between Mom and me. I guess I've been drawn toward "free range" rule-sets that sometimes take longer routes for more expressive game-play. That said, the game is where you have to "bear on" all your pieces then make it around the board the usual way and bear them off. It creates a longer scenario while taking all of your pieces out of the tray, then when the armies meet it creates a bit of a random encounter as the armies are looking for ways to move and taking many risks passing the enemy's camp, then finally a standard bear off per the usual game. According to Wikipedia there are rules of re-rolling doubles, or taking any double after an Acey-Deucy (the name of one of the Wikipedia variants), but using standard rules with the longer route seems like the ticket to fun games, and the time to finish 1 game is still bearable.