IronSnob

[Mahida]

[...] there's no variant community that survived up until now so 3rd party software is required at some points, as variant game play is essentially single player.

This isn't true. You can create a network game and transfer/mule items this way. The only requirement is an extra computer and a cable (or internet access on both computers). A 10-year old labtop would work quite well for this, and those aren't that expensive to come by.