Pokepal: Its called reading the rules. I wasn't sure how it worked...still not sure. Different mafia games have different rules for the order of actions.
It is always vote first. But after that there are several methods.
1) All actions take place no matter what. So if the Doctor protected someone from the mafia, but is attacked by the killer. The protect works, but killer still kills the Doctor.
2)Certain roles have priority. Like, The Doctors role has first priority to see if someone is protected, than the Killer and Vigilante, and finally the mafia hit...or whatever order. This can cause elements to the game to trigger differently.
In this game it was worded the T-Rex's actions take place at the end of the night actions....it states it in the rules. So, I assume that means other actions take place first...and the killers last.
Let me clarify this some more even. There is no real pecking order between the mafia hit and killer hit. So, if the doctor protected a townie at night and the killer made a hit on the doctor and the mafia made a hit on the townie, the killer's hit goes through but the mafia's hit fails. Likewise, if the killer hits the townie and the mafia hits the doctor, the mafia's hit will go through but the killer's hit will fail. I approach it like in the game Diplomacy where all actions occur at the same time.
The only instances I care about pecking order are:
1. If the killer and the mafia target the same person protected by the doctor, the rules state the doctor can only protect from one action. In that case, I'll go with the time orders are sent in which isn't the best way to resolve night actions but since the target is going to die either way, it's just a matter of who gets awarded the successful hit.
2. If the killer stockpiles hits and then unleashes them. In this scenario, if he wanted to hit Person A who was protected by the doctor and then hit Person B who is the doctor, then person A would survive because there was no attack to cut that protection from the doctor. However, if the situation was that Person A was the doctor protecting Person B, then both would die as the doctor's protection is prevented by him being hit first and then a hit occurring Person B. Some hosts may just feel that both would die in either scenario, some may feel that the protected player would always survive. This is just how I see it and rule accordingly that way.