Hadean Lands is a great modern IF game where you learn alchemical rituals, and have to figure out the meaning behind them to modify the ritual to solve puzzles.

Hadean Lands is a great modern IF game where you learn alchemical rituals, and have to figure out the meaning behind them to modify the ritual to solve puzzles. And I’ll second the recommendation for Emily Short’s Counterfeit Monkey. Another fun interesting one is Aisle… the whole game is a single command, but you can enter all sorts of things, and get different outcomes.