maybe a little fear of embarrassing myself by breaking something
ha ha no. you think you have direct access to the live code? ;-)
You submit patches (which are really full revisions, not deltas). We do a code review. If we see any potential issues, we throw it back to you, with discussion.
Please don't be afraid of the process, whether out of vanity or any other reason.
How hard would it be to build and run a clone/development version
I'm not sure of the precise answer, but I believe it's in the vicinity of "very", unless we don't mind giving away the passwords to every account; in that case, it would be "not at all". :-)
I reckon we are the only monastery ever to have a dungeon stuffed with 16
,000 zombies.