Well, like Classic was suggesting, we could run with a Universal Law of Drama. You know, like Undocumented Features has "the goodguys win" as a law of physics. Nothing that extreme, though. Perhaps something like "No one pursues destruction for its own sake." and/or "Large-scale villains are motivated by avarice, not hatred."
Under that theme, people who managed to get a means to destroy chunks of the Earth would likely be trying to use it as blackmail, or sell highly surgical strikes for large quantities of money or some such. This gives the heroes enough time to track them down and stop them (Though not necessarily prevent them from doing damage altogether.)
I suppose we could also just run with the "we don't do that - it breaks the world" rule. That may even wind up being the best available alternative. It just feels so *kludgy* to me. (Yes, yes, I know. The irony is forming little condensation droplets on the walls as I type.)
Under that theme, people who managed to get a means to destroy chunks of the Earth would likely be trying to use it as blackmail, or sell highly surgical strikes for large quantities of money or some such. This gives the heroes enough time to track them down and stop them (Though not necessarily prevent them from doing damage altogether.)
I suppose we could also just run with the "we don't do that - it breaks the world" rule. That may even wind up being the best available alternative. It just feels so *kludgy* to me. (Yes, yes, I know. The irony is forming little condensation droplets on the walls as I type.)