Question: Several months ago, I was in a session playing as a bard wanting to distract some bugbears while he snuck past. Understanding the goblinoid tongue, I heard one of them state he was starving. I used the phantasmal force spell on one of the bug bears, lets call him BugA. The desired effect was he would see one of the other bugbears as a pile of delicious food(BugB).

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> The phantasm includes sound, temperature, and other stimuli, also evident only to the creature.
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BugA began to eat BugB, who of course, was not pleased about this and attempted to protect himself, mainly by attempting to hold BugA back and producing a **lot of noise**.
Does the phantasmal force spell make BugA unable to hear BugB's shouting and requests for BugA to stop? (considering BugB is effectively obscured by the illusion) 

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> For example. a target attempting to walk across a phantasmal bridge that spans a chasm falls once it steps onto the bridge. If the target survives the fall, it still believes that the bridge exists and comes up with some other explanation for its fall-it was pushed, it slipped, or a strong wind might have knocked it off.
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Unlike the bridge example of the Player Handbook, the illusion covers a character that would be shouting and defending against the actions of the target of the spell. Would BugA continue to make excuses or ignore the noise produced by BugB? 

To put it another way, if a source of noise is inside of an illusion of a box, produced by the spell phantasmal force, can it be heard by the individual who can see the illusion?

Answer: 
**Yes, the affected target can hear the other bug bear, but it might not matter because illogical outcomes are internally rationalized by the affected creature.**

Source: PHB pg. 264, Phantasmal Force

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> The target rationalizes any illogical outcomes from interacting with the
>  phantasm. 
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So if the other bug bear was screaming at him because he was being eaten, the one who was affected by the spell might make an Investigate check to discern the illusion. But if he failed, he may rationalize screaming food as:

1. Another bug bear trying to wrest away his food;
2. A commotion in a different room nearby;
3. His own internal thoughts pestering him for being so gluttonous;
4. etc.

However, a key bit here that's been missed is that the affected bug bear is not compelled to eat by the spell just because it is hungry. So it wouldn't necessarily attack a giant plate of food that's arguing with it. It may just end up arguing with the food. At this point, it's entirely in the DM's hands to roleplay this out. 

It's certainly a creative use of the spell, but understand the illusion would simply make the other bugbear look like food. It wouldn't actually make the affected bug bear try to eat him, especially if the food ran away or started fighting back.
The victim will see a pile of food . . . and another bugbear. You are attempting to use give the spell a level of independent action that is well beyond the intent and capability of the spell.

Although you are allowed to create a phantasm that moves, you are not allowed to create a phantasm that reacts intelligently and independently to thwart a second character. There must be some sort of roll to determine the condition of the second bugbear - an attack roll or opposed skill check - which is a clue that you are stretching the spell beyond its intent. In a sense, you are targeting two characters with a single action.

Such a broad definition of the spell opens it to incredible abuse. In any combat, an illusionist could cause any combatant to view any ally as an enemy or an enemy as an ally - a far more powerful effect than anything suggested in the spell description. Against a small party, it becomes almost a save-or-TPK.

By the way . . . what sort of food is the approximate size of a bugbear and appears spontaneously in a bugbear camp? How would a bugbear actually 'attack' such food? And what would he think when the food shifted position - assuming that BugB wasn't actually nailed to that spot on the floor?