“Bugg-Shash” – Arkham Horror Great Old One, front side

Bugg-Shash is an obscure Great Old One, and this is V2.0 of this home-made game supplement.
This enemy was developed with a quick and demanding game in mind, and for a smaller group of investigators.

Therefore, this Great Old One was designed not to be too strong, but put up constant threats that put good pressure on players through its potentially quick awakening.
Additionally, Bugg-Shash should allow investigators to prepare themselves for the final battle, esp. with some monster trophies – otherwise, things can become ugly and end quickly!

Being a solitary creature that is only summoned by sorcerers or madmen, the monster cup was slightly altered by taking all cultists and high priest out of the game. The remaining monsters with affinity to Bugg-Shash were toughened to reflect their dedication and desperate situation to unleash this being onto Arkham.

Since Bugg-Shash has the ability to animate the dead, I wanted to add a mechanism that keeps the players on the edge and busy.
I decided that zombies were to act a bit like spawn monsters, but with a twist that fundamentally influences the game against Bugg-Shash.
The special rule to put zombies back on Bugg-Shash’s card after defeating and spending them (instead of placing them into the monster cup as usual) is part of the fun. The zombies also still count against the monster limit (unlike spawn monsters) and can cause a bit of trouble in the long run.
Through a rising terror level, the limited stock of zombies are more and more likely to come into play. Since the stock of 3 is not big, the zombies pose a constant indirect threat: killed zombies are claimed by the investigators, but at that moment they are taken out of the game. They must then be spent quickly to fill up Bugg-Shash’s card stock again. If the stock ever becomes empty, the Great Old One is likely to awaken VERY quickly through the additional doom markers that are placed on the track, and the effect might cascade if the stock remains empty.

To cope with the threat, investigators also better quickly find/save some allies to prevent Bugg-Shash from snatching them (through the rising Terror Level or discarding them by themselves) and sending them back as zombies into town. They also come in handy as "fodder" for the final battle – having some allies as well as monster trophies will help the investigators considerably if Bugg-Shash awakens.

To make the final battle with Bugg-Shash more playable, I decided to allow monster trophies to be used as "bait", primarily in order to save investigators from being devoured too quickly. As a compensation, monster trophies are without effect on Bugg-Shash’s hunger and combat power. Bugg-Shash is a hunter and killer, and only ‘the real thing’ will sate its hunger!

Even though the -5 toughness appears pretty high at first for such a weak Great Old One, it declines with the number of victims Bugg-Shash takes. It can drop quickly if the investigators prepared themselves well for this confrontation.
As a more flexible alternative and for larger investigator groups, I considered to set Bugg-Shash’s toughness to 2+(number of players), but setting it on a fixed number appeared easier to handle.

Another twist comes with the optional Epic Battle cards. One runs in favor of the investigators, weakening Bugg-Shash’s defences for one round.
The other two have more serious effects. One of them resembles the normal attack, but is focussed on monster trophies. And the attack is in so far more severe, as investigators have to keep at least one monster trophy at the end of the round, or be devoured – they need TWO monster trophies to actually survive this attack!
The last Plot Card changes Bugg-Shash’s power (to its favor, of course) and allows it to regenerate through the investigator victims it claims during the final battle.

Good luck against The Devourer!

Posted by Dizzyfugu on 2017-09-15 20:28:15

Tagged: , Arkham , horror , great , old , one , strange , eons , game , supplement , dizzyfugu