What to do with money in a swat game?

As a GM what can i do with money in a swat game? their gear is government supplied, what use is it other than bribes or food?

Like real life... have the SWAT guys buy better stuff off amazon.

Don't include it, make them submit requisition forms for anything beyond the standard kit required. Unless there is a big focus on living and expenses then money has no real measure of anything in a Swat game imo.

I played a game where the characters are cops, so most of the equipment is provided by the government (but not the sidearm). We actually rarely spend money. When we do, it's to pay a snitch or purchase overly expensive drinks while undercover in some night clubs. We all assume that most of our character's money is spent on food, housing, transportation and healthcare.

They could put forth money for even better equipment, funds for a second stash if they get black listed and have to clear up their name, paying off snitches, paying off officials to keep them off their back until they can find evidence to get them on, upgrades to facilities beyond what is provided etc.

>what can i do with money in a swat game
Rent an apartment, feed your kids, go hungry because your son needs medicine for that fucking cough he got from the bitch who grew him, send another picture of your gun to her new boyfriend's house, buy a lot of alcohol, cry a lot.

kek

what should the players be working towards then? when in a fantasy game you want money so you can buy better gear or settle down on a farm, or stand on your enormous pile of gold.

in a cop game you could potentially buy black market illegal goods if you're so inclined to deal with some seedy underbelly. sure you get your guns for free, but the good stuff dont come cheap.

and once you get 3 days from retirement your character will die so settling down on a farm isn't an option.

i guess you could use it stand on your pile of money.

Should there be some kind of night job/side job sort of deal? like the players could earn stuff like items stat bonuses or money by becoming a drug kingpin or having a bounty hunting job on the side?

just random questions to ponder over

Doesn't Apocalypse world have rules for side gigs like this? i dont play shadowrun but does that also contain stuff for this?

>what should the players be working towards then?
Not letting the bad guys get away with their criminal schemes maybe?

New Delta Green's rules on income and requisition might be worth a loom

>cyberpunk capitalist-dystopian SWAT game
Have them use money to buy better weapons, gear and Intel from mega corporations rather than use shit-tier standard issue gear.

>what should the players be working towards then
Catching that small time per that leads to them busting a drug ring before fighting off an organized cartel only to realize it was actually funded by the governor but he got permission from the president so now they have to storm the whitehouse for JUSTICE

I'd probably be autistic enough to demand that people kept up with their account balance, and subtract rent and food costs each month in-game (if I ever GM-ed).

Mechanix gloves and meme patches.

Pay rent, buy a nice sweater, all those things.

More relevant, you can retroactively remove the money if a player wants to claim they have a hobby, since those can bring in-game useful skills and cost.

Side stories, man.

When SWAT member Mike have to pay his mortgage or his wife and newborn will live on the streets, that bribe isn't so quickly turned down.
When Charlie's dad need money for his cancer treatment, maybe he'll try to sell the weapons they confiscated.
And maybe Oscar is just a corrupt dick.

Buying your way into alcoholism, rehab, drugs, rehab, alcoholism and drugs, alimony when your wife rescues the kids from your abusiveness, child support, etc.

Ya know, the kind of shit actual cops spend their money on?

The rest of your game better be manna from the heavens.

Battlefield Bad Company style. The pay is shit, your pension is shit, and you're going to be working for the rest of your life to retire in a shit home in a shit neighborhood.

Or you can hustle on the side, pursue that big payday, and retire early in Monaco.

Other than that, government supplied weapons and armor is shit and its easier to buy your own stuff rather than trust govt arms.

Or the government is shit and charge you per bullet and damage

Maybe you pay lawyers to cover up any acts of guns blazing

cool now how do you do this in game while still making it worth my fucking time, i dont play games so i can simulate eating and shitting

Money should be kinda like your score.

You normally gain money by doing your job. You can get a lot more than that by taking certain risky actions. Examples might include taking bribes, "losing" equipment and selling it on the black market, taking money/drugs/weapons from raids instead of turning it in as evidence, etc.

Whoever ends the campaign with the largest bank account wins the game.

Or unde-rreporting any money found in the field and putting that spare cred away in a go-bag for when you decide to screw over your company.

"shadowrun"

You can just ignore it.
Not every game needs "money as a reward" system.

Make them save it. Have half of the game composed of regular swat work with some kind of overarching plot. Then have them find information about the mayor and police chief that will make them spend the other half of the game under the radar.

give them a little each game week as a paycheck. make sure it's some crappy amount they won't be happy with. be sure to factor in cost of living. this will motivate them to do things like take bribes, pocket evidence, lose gear, "lose" gear. then make that accrued wealth matter by terminating their employment. this is a cyberpunk setting I assume so that will most likely involve a few bullets. now their wealth means something. and it makes it interesting for later when they have to deal with being fired. their only gear and money would be what they managed to steal then after that go to normal wealth accruing methods

OP this guy here also has a great idea. do it less swat more elite private police force. make it apparent that the stock officer loadout isn't going to be effective very long. maybe let the corporation they work for allow them to keep some things from their ops. at the end of the day a mega corporation isn't going to slouch on their elite enforcers.

> Off duty/personal items including weapons, armour, etc.
Not everyone that wants to avenge a crook that the characters dealt with will be dumb enough to come after them when they're on duty and fully kitted up!

bump

You can use it to send a message by burning it.

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>what should the players be working towards then?
The characters are cops. They have a job to do: uphold the law, protect the innocents, etc. As long as the DM has good investigations that should be enough.

feels

There's also the extreme where there is no police force. The A.I. just makes arrest warrants for criminals (based on CCTV footages) and bounty hunters hunt them down.

>cops
>upholding the law
>protecting innocents
Good joke

That's why it's an RPG - it's fantasy.

Jokes aside, unless you live in a third world shithole, it's what most cops do. They're not all trigger happy fascists. Grow up.