Just wondering if i should start playing when the new season comes out.

I just started the game and found out the season ends more or less next week.

Basically every guide I'm seeing is saying to start a season character for the rewards but i'm more of a player that likes to, well, just play at my own pace.

Any advice?

They just announced Winter season will be extended until March 30th so plenty of time to start a season character.

https://www.naeu.playblackdesert.com/en-US/News/Detail?groupContentNo=2676&countryType=en-US

Start now and still do the next season.

Each Season are worth. not doing/completing this season you are going to lose alot of worthy reward.

lmao they now even delay their recycled "content".

Thats good news :) Might just roll a season character and start having fun.

So basically just play through the story, get naru gear and upgrade it?

yeah hun, if you need a guild  to guide/help you.  You can look up Momiji in guild search/rank and apply 
dont do the story skip this time get the extra sp from the quests manually 

Get Naru gear, upgrade it to PEN, then exchange it for Tuvala and upgrade it to PEN.

The guides from this site are pretty good: https://grumpygreen.cricket/season/

Once you've got Tuvala, if you run out of mats to enhance it, Rift Echos are a good way to get some quickly.  Quite often there are people hanging around north of Loggia Farm looking for others to join in Rift Echoes.  You also get more mats for enhancing Tuvala as you level up through lv61.

As mentioned, doing this season won't prevent you from doing the next ones, and every season comes with interesting rewards, above all for new /returning players. The accessories are really good and the requirements for getting them are reasonable. You can even do the bare minimum this season, and start another character on a kind of "second walk-through" next season if you want. 

So... No reason to delay! And above all, have fun! ;) 

I know right? It's so sad it's funny. They can't even do the christmas event anymore. They just need to toggle a switch and the event is on. But no, we don't get christmas for 2 years in a row but what we do get is plenty of popup ads when booting the game. SPEND MORE MONEY! Yeah... No thanks!  Not when PA showed promise last year that they were actually listening for once after all those years of ignoring us, but then nothing came out of it. Just delay after delay and more empty promises. I read in another thread that they cancelled the next season and extended this one as a result. Who knows why? I'm not hard to please but PA knows how to do everything wrong...

If you are playing through the main quest, you are going to get some gear from it that is account bound.

Keep that for next season, as seasonal characters can wear those. Send them to Velia and pick them up when your new seasonal character gets there.  This includes the Abyssal Weapon you get in Mediah. If you don't upgrade it to an Obsidian version, you can get a quest from the Skill Instructor in Altinova to put it back in a box and give it to a different class.

Seasonal characters can also wear Asula accessories and the quest accessories from Valencis (2 rings), Kamasylvia (2 earrings), Drieghan (belt) and Ody (a necklace).

Both options are a good start for a seasonal character.