I recently became interested in doing a take on Star Wars in the GURPS 4th edition role-playing system. I have pretty much all the books, so I can make lightsabers, Jedi fighting styles, Star Destroyers and even give statistics for the imperial capital if I like. There is an already existing GURPS Star Wars project that is a fairly comprehensive treatment of the Expanded Universe (and maybe the Prequel/Sequel-verse). Though I have read some of the EU books and most of the Essential Guides I wanted to do something different (and less tedious and time consuming). I wanted to stat things up using normal GURPS rules (for Ultra-Tech, Spaceships and Psi) without referring to any content, explanations, or backgrounds that isn’t explicitly in the original trilogy. This is both because it’s far less material to have to sift through and model, because it gives me more leeway when designing things, and also because the Joseph Campbell meets Flash Gordon meets WW2 movie theme is just a lot different in tone than the EU/Game/Prequel/Sequel stuff. When I found this website I figured it would be a good way to figure out just what is - and what isn’t - actually in the original trilogy.

Here is a list that compiles a combination of things I thought of and things I came across reading threads in other forums regarding similar topics:

Technology - Spaceships

Small Spaceships capable of planetary landing
Big spaceships capable of planetary landing & takeoff (Hoth)
Large battleships (‘Star Destroyers’) (How big is a Star Destroyer without reference to EU-lore?)
Huge battleships (the Executor, 'Star Dreadnought) (As Star Destroyer - how big is this thing?)
The Death Star (How big is it?)
‘Blaster’ type ship weapons
Missiles of some sort (are they ever named in the films?)
Shields
Tractor Beams
Hyperdrive (requires calculations, no real indication of how fast this is since we don’t have any scale of the Empire or distance between where the crews travel - except that it’s called ‘Galactic’)
Space fighters of the Empire (are these called TIE anywhere in the films?)
Smaller (but still large) spacecraft (Leia’s ship - is it ever named?)
The Millenium Falcon
Rebel big ships in VI’
X-Wings
Various Rebel Fighters/Small Ships (never named or explained in the films)
Bounty Hunter’s spaceship in VI
Emperor’s shuttle in VI
Imperial ‘bulk cruisers’ mentioned, inferior to ‘Correlian’ ones?
Cloaking devices aren’t unheard of, but small ships don’t have them
Ships aren’t that common?

Planetside Vehicles

Landspeeders
Chicken-legged armored vehicles with blasters
The four-legged walkers with blasters (‘Imperial Walkers’ in the films)
Flying speeder things on Hoth that the rebels use, have blasters and cables
Hovering skiff thing on Tatooine that Jabba has

Big Guns & Defenses

Those defensive cannons on Hoth
Some kind of shield over the rebel base on Hoth

Personal Weapons Technology

‘Blasters’ - semiautomatic energy guns of some kind, including some gun Leia has (presumably a blaster), the rifles the Stormtroopers carry, the big pistol Han Solo has, Greedo’s gun, presumably the MG42 looking thing the Stormtroopers were getting ready to blast Han with when they were taking off in the Millenium Falcon
Lightsabers - seem to cut basically whatever, but can be stopped by tough materials. Not actually used much except Vader v. Obi/Luke fights - swords with an armor divisor
Axes
Thermal Grenades
Spear thingies Palpatine’s guards have
Bounty Hunter’s gun in VI
SAW-type blasters used by the rebels during the Battle of Hoth
Miscellaneous guns and melee weapons see in IV and VI but never used or explained

Personal Armor

Stormtrooper armor (seems useless, at least against direct hits from the weapons the heroes carry)
Red armor the emperor’s guards are wearing (never tested)
Vader’s armor (either his armor or his powers or both stopped a short-range hit from Han’s big pistol)
Vests that rebel pilots are wearing in V/VI (never really tested)
Bounty Hunter’s outfit in VI (maybe durable, the fight with him in the desert was pretty short)

Androids and Cyborgs

R2D2, C3P0, C3P0 knock-off, droid that catches fire up in IV, trash can droid, little black box robot on wheels, bounty hunter robot in V
Darth Vader is cybernetic. it was somewhat implied that Vader’s cybernetics were voluntary.
Cyborg with weird head appliance on Cloud City
Luke’s robot hand in VI
Imperial Probe Droid
Torture Robot used on Leia in IV
Anti-droid prejudice exists.
Droids can be tortured.
Restraint bolts are a common method of controlling droids.
C3PO introduces himself as “Human-Cyborg Relations”. Cyborgs are common? Why do they need a droid to relate to humans?

Other Technology

Cameras (on Death Star)
Hologram communication (Emperor to Vader)
Hologram recording (R2D2) and display (IV)
Stormtrooper communicator link thingies in IV
Freeze people in carbonite (potentially non-lethal)

Imperial Politics

Empire had a senate (was dissolved), The Senate was important enough that some of the Imperial officers think doing away with it is risky. The Imperial senate was considered the last vestige of the Republic
Empire has an Emperor. No explanation of how or why he’s the Emperor, or how old the empire is, or if he’s the first emperor or one in a series, or what came before the empire, whether the empire is a revolutionary government (i.e. overthrew the previous state which ruled Tatooine and other parts of the Galaxy) or an expansionist one (which conquered them). This really just isn’t gone into at all.
Tarkin is apparently important (Governor - ‘Grand Moff’ in credits may be a feudal title unrelated to his position in the Empire)
Some other imperial officers on the Death Star and various imperial ships (ranks? Grand Moff, Captain, Admiral)
Deleted Tatooine scene has Biggs talking about the Empire nationalizing commerce, so it’s apparently somewhere between interventionist and communist in its economic policies.
regional governors
The Empire has been tightening its control recently, and that has driven more worlds to the Rebel Alliance.
The (imperial) Academy appears to be a Galaxy-wide institution - it’s a way for young folks from remote planets to get into the galaxy at large.
Actual Imperial authority seems pretty remote, at least on the sort of worlds where the movies are mostly set. Maybe they’ve got their hands full clamping down on the important worlds?
Corellia seems to be a shipbuilding center for the Imperial fleet.
There are at least 6 million forms of communication in the Empire.
Regarding Vader’s role, its interesting to note that in the first film it seems Vader has no military authority in and of himself. He’s Tarkin’s servant, and thus can call on the Moff to back his actions, but he’s otherwise without a legitimate place in the command structure, enough so that the actual senior officer’s of the Death Star are openly dismissive of him. However, by the second film Vader is personally in command of his own fleet and answers only to the emperor. The implication is that between the first and second film there was a big shake-up in the upper echelons of the Empire, and Vader shrewdly (and probably ruthlessly) used the opportunity to seize a great deal of power for himself. Head of the Secret Police.
The Old Republic was apparently semi-feudal (akin to the Roman), whereas the Empire is bureaucratic-technical (as is the Rebel Alliance.
Feudal titles (Princess, Lord, Knight) and Republican ones (Senator) but these don’t seem to carry much weight anymore?

Rebel Alliance

Lady in the big meeting over the Death Star plans in IV (is she named?)
Mon Mothma named in VI credits, but never mentioned in the movie
Other people in the meeting, also people in V and VI rebel base (are any ever given name or rank?), rebel pilots (some are ‘leader’ of a squad but no rank otherwise given)
Leia seems important

Commerce

Mined Spice from Kessel is valuable (and smuggled)
Almost everyone on both sides is a human
Cut scene of Biggs complaining about the Empire nationalizing commerce

Places

Alderan (blown to bits)
Tatooine
Cloud City: Cloud City, as grand as it seems, isn’t considered a big place by galactic standards.
Hoth
Rebel base on Yucatan Pyramid Planet (ever given a name in the movies?)
Dagobah (system?) Swamp planet with Yoda
Dantooine (too far away to be useful as a demonstration, but close enough that scouts can get there reasonably quickly)

Force Powers

Dark Side named - There is no “light side” of the Force, just the Force and the Dark Side.
Vague stuff about the Force being some kind of energy that binds the Universe
In script Vader is referred to as a ‘Dark Lord of the Sith’, which is never mentioned or explained in any of the movies as far as I remember
Push/throw/lift stuff is a pretty common technique
Befuddle the minds of/evade notice from dumbasses
Improve your sword-fighting and piloting/space shooting abilities
Block blaster bolts? (Vader in V)
Fly/Jump (Vader & Luke)
Choke people, even via telecom
Shoot lightning (only the Emperor does this)
See into the future or something (Yoda does this, the Emperor too?)
Turn into a force ghost when you die (Vader, Obi-Wan, Yoda); This is a sufficiently rare thing that Obi-wan figured Darth Vader would either be unaware of it, or at least unaware of Kenobi’s abilities in that state.
Jedis: Obi-Wan, Yoda, no one else ever mentioned as far as I can tell. No information given on them at all. The Jedi had an apprenticeship system of teaching that is apparently helped by withdrawing from the world (see Dagobah and the evil cave thing) but Jedi were involved in the world- Kenobi was a general, Anakin was a pilot. As a result there is no evidence that any but the Jedi Masters were monastic, becoming a Jedi didn’t mean you had to give up the world until you became like Yoda on Dagobah or Obi-Wan on Tatooine. Also the Jedi were Knights. Darth Vader is widely thought to be the last practitioner of the Jedi “religion.”
No mention of the Sith at all (except in script, unexplained), or any order of Dark Side users. Vader works for the Emperor, the Emperor is the Emperor, they both have Dark Side powers. Vader used to maybe be a Jedi (never explicitly said IIRC) but there’s no explanation for who the Emperor is or why he has powers/where he got them.
Imperial officer refers to Vader’s powers as ‘sorcery’ and ‘dead religion’
Some locations are stronger in the Force than others.
Luke doesn’t seem to have ever heard of the Force before his talk with Obi-Wan. Others had heard of it, but even experienced and well-travelled people often don’t believe in it and haven’t ever seen enough obvious ‘powers’ to take anyone talking about it seriously.
“The Lightsaber is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. A relic of a more civilized age.” Upper class? Everyone looks concerned when Obiwan whips out the lightsaber, but not Jedi concerned. Just like he’s a tough customer and wondering what his next move is. Again, implies lightsabers are not the exclusive tool of Jedi.
“Jedi are all but extinct.” Implies some still live out in the galaxy… out of the reach of the Empire.
Jedi were trained young
Vader hunted Jedi?
History
Republic Lasted for a 1,000 generations
Republic fought Clone Wars
Obi-Wan was a general in the clone wars and worked with/fought with/knew Leia’s adoptive father Bail Organna. Anakin fought in the Clone Wars
Cut scene reveals Anakin Skywalker is a famous hotshot pilot