Red vs. Black Mysterious Past?

Question

In the Marshal's Handbook it says:

When a player draws a Joker during character creation, draw a card from your own Action Deck. This card determines the character’s “mysterious past.”

The reason that I'm here is it also says:

Make sure you talk it over a little with the player first, though. You don’t want to ruin a player’s fun by sticking him with a mysterious past he’s going to hate.

One of my players drew a black joker during character creation, and I drew a red joker to go with it. This means the player begins play as a Harrowed, so I ran it by him.

I was operating under the assumption that drawing a black joker is always bad, so on Mysterious Pasts that have a red and black section, I interpreted the rules as, "If the player draws a black joker, he gets the black effect."

He took it as being the other way; since my follow-up card was red, that should be a good thing.

Obviously I could just rule however I'd like, being the marshal and all, but if there's an official ruling, I'd rather go with that.

My Question:
If a player draws a joker during character creation, is the "color" of the mysterious past based on the color of the joker drawn, or on the color of the follow-up card the Marshal draws?

Answer 1

None of the published FAQ or update materials clarify this issue. In the worked examples of Character Creation I've found on the net, including this one by White Wolf developer Matt McFarland, all of them presume that the color of the second card drawn is the one that determines the nature of the Mysterious Past where that's relevant. I believe the caution in the second quote is just a '90s-era guide to the Marshal not to be cruel.