I've just downloaded Mount & Blade and am working through the tutorials, and unfortunately have already encountered a problem! I am on the Parry tutorial, wherein you are given a quarterstaff and instructed to hold down the right mouse button (once the enemy raises their weapon to attack), and it should parry the blow. However, my character never raises his quarterstaff to parry/block. It appears that the right mouse button does nothing! In the previous tutorial, I was able to block with the shield using the right mouse button without issue. Is there some timing or other indicator I should be looking for, or is there a problem with my install?
Nevermind! The game was unclear that you had to maintain a certain distance in order to successfully parry attacks. If I keep back-pedaling, I am able to parry without issue.

Timing is key. I've only played with the automatic parry option, not sure if you turned yours off or not, but in order for the system to know WHICH direction to parry, the attacker needs to raise their weapon to strike first. When they, say, raise their weapon above their head, your character will know to raise the quarterstaff above their head to block.

If you use it before they've readied their weapon you'll lock it in a useless parry.

Parrying is easy to get the hang of once you've figured this out, although I tend to prefer the shield's less fussy coverage.

Turn auto off for easier parrying and better too. Yes, it takes a while to master but improves your fighting.