OK, from M&M I know how much a 10-day supply costs. But it does not tell me how often the cyberzombie needs to be dosed, or how long 1 dose lasts?

My players decided that taking on a cyberzombie who is hunting them may be a little foolish so they are thinking of outlasting the CZ by killing off his technical support and let the damn thing run out of gas, so to speak. But here's the clincher, I do not know how long a single dose of the special nutrient lasts.

As you may know, I am loath to deviate from Canon so I am asking anyone if they had read in any of the sourcebooks about how long does a single dose of the special nutrient last?

I am thinking of a single dose per day, but some Canon indication would be good.

I don't think you have to worry about deviating from canon, I don't think they ever get into it.
One end of the spectrum is that the CZ gets a big injection once per day, the other end of the spectrum is that the auto injector constantly monitors several factors and delivers a near constant stream of different drugs, maintaining the delicate balance of un-life in which the CZ exists. The CZ might be fine for a day or more, or he might start having problems immediately. Most importantly, there's no reason for the PC's to know how it will be until the CZ starts twitching. I suggest a slow deterioration that starts quickly and ends in a messy, graphic showdown with a more-than-half-dead CZ.
Have fun.

They are planning (and damned smart of them) to avoid combat with the thing altogether. As a secondary plan, they are planning to lure the CZ into a AAA area and let the cops deal with it.

yeah i could already imagine how i'd run that end battle:
"the mage assenses him and shudders, 'He has...no aura'
the zombie screams an inhuman yowl and charges you, small bits of flesh falling off with each step. make a body test to avoid being nauseated by the stench of rotting flesh and oxidizing metal...."

Great. Then Lone Star gets to keep the body. That's just perfect. Delta cops; I can see it now.

Don

Right. They always list drugs in "doses" in M&M. There's no reason they would suddenly decide to change that for one particular entry unless that particular entry's "dose" came in a 10-day supply.

So one dose is enough to last 10 days unless you do something to damage his autoinjector.

Hmmm, makes sense. OK, a single dose lasts 10 days...

Oh boy...

I think you're almost right. I don'tbelieve it's a single dose, as a dose means a single application. I believe it's enough to be continually injected for 10 days via autoinjector, like an IV drip. The cyberzombie gradually runs out, and when it's out it dies.

That's mainly a semantics issue, but depending on how the resupply works it could matter.

That's why I put "dose" in quotation marks. It's a single refueling that lasts ten days each time it's given, but it's a constant "dose" for those ten days.

Sort of like a limited Chemical Gland with the "always keep the equivalence of one dose in the blood stream" option.

right, cool.

I'd go for a 10 day supply being a 1-litre (10 dose) quantity.

Of course if you want to be really evil you can just hollow out a leg (the thing *is* a cyberzombie, after all) and load up the leg with several months/years worth of zombiejuice. Great thing about that is it forces your players to at least partly engage the CZ, at least to blow out its hollow leg.

Unless, of course, the cocktail is perishable somehow. As an example, many radiopharms have a half-life of hours or days.

edit: redundant. I hate it when I do that.
[edit again: oh well, might as well not waste the typing. Moon-Hawk, I didn't read your first post before writing this.]

I just now realized M&M doesn't say how long one "dose" lasts or how much a dose is. It lists the cost for a 10-day supply, reduced cost for refills, and results if the system runs out. Looking at the other drugs the cost is either for one dose or one litre. I always assumed one "dose" lasted 10 days, but looking at it now, it's never explictly stated.

The entry for auto-injectors says they hold up to five doses, but not how much that is in volume.

It seems the "canon" amount of time a cyberzombie can remain active without refills (not counting other issues) is up the the GM. At the free end a cyberzombie can stay in the field for 50 days; five doses, each lasting 10 days. On the restricted end, the GM can give one "dose" a volume and divide 10 days by how many "doses" make one litre, giving the CZ only a one dose auto-injector.

Of course, if I missed where the amount of time one "dose" lasts is stated, or how much one "dose" is, all this doesn't count.

The PCs managed to hit a serious on the CZ before running the f**k away. Rolling on the cyberware stress tables, they managed to hit the autoinjecter and the MBW 4 and managed to drop its Quickness quite a bit. So the CZ's stuck in the slow lane with the cops bearing down on it...