I just got finished with beating Riven for the first time. I adored the way the game seeped into my real life with pages of notes about the world I was discovering. Are there any other games that can match this feeling? That really work best when you have a journal in hand?
Love that your example was riven. Was my first thought on the title.
The myst games, their newer game Obduction, the Talos Principle. Those puzzle games all are awesome and take some pen and paper.
Escape from mystwood mansion, the house of da Vinci are a couple others that feel the same way.
Less adventure, more “must optimize!” games like Satisfactory, Factorio are other games that require me to bust out pen and paper or at least a website, spreadsheet or calculator.