Is there a "next" player in solo play? I´m asking because of that one Lake-Town card with a shadow effect of "Smaug engages the next player and makes an immediate attack". i don´t particularily fancy Smaug attacking me 3-4 times a round; it´s hard enough as is.

As far as I know, in solo play the First Player is considered to be the First, Next, and Last player.

Just read this, it's from The Long Dark rulesheet:

"The next player is the player sitting directly to the left of the player referenced by the card effect. If there are no other players in the game, there is no next player."

So no, in solo play, there is no next player.

Good catch -- thanks for clarifying.  And just to be complete-- from the Khazad-dum rule book, the first player IS the last player.

"Last Player

Yeah, it gets pretty confusing.  But I'm glad that FFG made next player and last player, because then the first player doesn't get clobbered by all the encounter cards.  And it adds a bit of unpredictability, because you don't know who's going to be affected by the encounter cards when they pop up.

That´s good news indeed! Thanks, guys!