I have never played D&D mostly because I don't have anyone to play with where I live. Personally, I think it's intentionally done by the writers. Instead of the three waiting for what Mike rolls, they have a proactive role in determining what the outcome would be. It foreshadows the whole conflict of the series. The three kids (and the adults) don't just sit and wait to find out what happened to Will. They go out and try to find a way to find him. Going back to the analogy, I'd say 011 is the fireball and the creature is the Demogorgon. And, we know (or not know) how that turns out.
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I like your interpretation! Having Will take action does give him agency as a character, and it probably plays out better than just having him and the other players sit around waiting for Mike to tell them what happens.
I like the idea of Eleven being the fireball in this interpretation, too. She is, after all, a powerful force to be reckoned with!
Is it really "Eleven" though? I'm a CompSci major and whenever I see 011 (0 kept intact), I consider it binary, which converts to "3" in decimal. It's really odd to insert a 0 before 11 if "eleven" is what's really meant.
Sure, there are arguments that point to the tattoo as a designation much like Nazi concentration camps, although in a laboratory/test subject kind of setting. It's just really weird that there's a 0 there. Do they intend to go until 999 and stop there? Since the 80s are the advent of the computer revolution, it could be an homage to that by the creators.
Anyway, yeah, that's how I interpreted it, since 011 is pretty much the only weapon they had against it. Sure the three teens tried to burn it at one point as well, but I guess their d20 roll landed on a miss.