Oh we're going to break much more than the forests and the fires I assure you :) Related to that, I'm not sure if you've seen it before or even have the time with everything on your plate, but I think this blog post from the creator of Rimworld concerning storytelling and emergent complexity in game systems might be interesting to you:
https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TynanSylvester/20130602/193462/The_Simulation_Dream.php
Sometimes I disagree with Tynan's conclusions but I think it has some particularly relevant considerations with what you're working on now.